Warner opts against revealing Blatter emails
Reuters - Sunday 05 June 2011, 21:43
CHAGUANAS - Suspended FIFA
vice-president Jack Warner has backed down for legal reasons
from his threat to reveal the content of emails with the ruling
body's president Sepp Blatter.
Warner had promised a "football tsunami" would follow his
suspension by FIFA's Ethics committee last week but on Sunday he
produced little more than a gentle Caribbean breeze.
In a brief speech in his constituency on Sunday, Warner,
also Ministers of Works and Transport for Trinidad and Tobago,
reiterated his innocence but said he would not be making public
the emails after discussions with hislawyers.
"I had plans to speak to you today a bit more on this matter
but the best legal advice I received has suggested that I do not
do so at this point in time and that advice I am going to
respect," he told supporters from his party at a public rally.
Warner, also president of CONCACAF, the regional body for
football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has
been suspended pending a full investigation by FIFA into
allegations that bribery took place at a meeting he organised
with Mohammed Bin Hammam.
The meeting in Trinidad involving Bin Hammam, the head of
the Asian Football Confederation, was related to the Qatari's
presidential election campaign against Blatter.
"I haven't thieved anything, I haven't given anybody
anything and I don't know what the hullaballoo is all about,"
Warner said.
Responding to calls by one of the major partners in the
coalition government and by the opposition for him to step down
pending FIFA's investigations into the allegations, Warner said
his FIFA position never interfered with his government work.
But he told supporters, "if it comes to a choice between
FIFA and you, the choice is you."
Bin Hammam has also been suspended from all football
activities and, like Warner, has denied any wrongdoing.
Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president last week at a
congress overshadowed by bribery and corruption allegations.