Guest column: Jack should thank the Daily Telegraph leak

The column below by Valentino Singh has been reproduced unedited from the Guardian newspaper.

If I were former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, I’d be looking to send a thank you card to the person who leaked the infamous Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) video recording, now being promoted on the London Daily Telegraph. 

As a matter of fact, knowing Warner as I do, it won’t surprise me one bit if he himself sent that recording to London. 

What else can I think? 

After listening carefully to what was said, unless you are someone with an insatiable dislike for the numero uno man of football in the region, you cannot help but conclude that the recording completely exonerates Warner of all bribery charges which FIFA may have aimed at him. 

I didn’t need someone from Yale or Harvard to convince me that Warner was implicit in his contribution that no one who was being gifted at that meeting was obligated to vote for Muhammad Bin Hamman, the man on whose behalf the meeting was being held. 

He was clear on the reason why Bin Hamman was giving cash instead of the culturally established practise of FIFA, where exorbitant gifts are the norm.

He asked for nothing for himself. In fact, neither did he ask for anything for any member of the CFU. He simply didn’t ask. It was Bin Hammam who insisted that the private jet which he was using to come to Trinidad could not accommodate gifts for the 25 members of the CFU and opted to make his contribution in cash. 

Warner went to great lengths to explain that Bin Hammam's gifts were not for personal enrichment but for use in the development of football in the various territories and were not to be regarded as enticement to procure members' votes as members were expected to vote according to the dictates of their conscience. 

He then went to great lengths to apprise everyone present of all the facts, the pros and the cons. As head of the CFU, Warner had a responsibility to his membership to express an understanding of the situation as it related to their choices of Bin Hamman or Sepp Blatter for presidency. And this he did, pointing out that the heir apparent or the most likely man to succeed Blatter in four years time was Michel Platini - a Frenchman.

Did they want to go back to Europe? Or would someone from another part of the world with fresh ideas be their choice? I would think that those of us who believe in democracy would applaud Warner’s initiative. 

As far as I am concerned he was seeking to gain every advantage for his own region in as democratic a way as one would wish. And who can blame him? 

I am still waiting to understand what part of the recording constitute a bribe. But like I said I am hamstrung by the limits placed on me by my failure to attend Harvard or Yale. 

All I can say is that in my very humble view, FIFA may have initiated charges against Warner for bribery and they may very well have been valid, but if this is the recording that was meant to implicate him, I respectfully submit that it would have taken a kangaroo court to get a conviction. Not that FIFA does not have kangaroo courts but that’s another story!