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ROSEAU—FIFA Vice President and CONCACAF President Jack Warner has expressed concerns about the management of football throughout the Caribbean region.
Warner commented during a one-day visit to Dominica, where there has been long-running turmoil in the national association.
“Before I became CONCACAF President, there was heavy resistance from the Spanish-speaking countries that these so called specks of dust, as they called them, should not be in CONCACAF and should not be in FIFA,” he said.
“When we went to a FIFA Congress, and they showed Dominica for example, with less than 100,000 people, a guy said that they have more people than that watching a club football match in his country, and they tried to ridicule us, and tried to ridicule me.
Against this backdrop, Warner disclosed that he fought for FIFA to give every country in the world one million US dollars to assist them with their development programmes.
“If I had only known that the problems that I am now experiencing in the Caribbean, I would have thought twice,” he said.
“Dominica, of course, is the worst case, but throughout the Caribbean there are different levels of problems which we are now experiencing which possibly means that I should first have an apprenticeship before I had full membership.”
Warner said that the money given to the countries was not meant to replace government or corporate funding.
Warner commented during a one-day visit to Dominica, where there has been long-running turmoil in the national association.
“Before I became CONCACAF President, there was heavy resistance from the Spanish-speaking countries that these so called specks of dust, as they called them, should not be in CONCACAF and should not be in FIFA,” he said.
“When we went to a FIFA Congress, and they showed Dominica for example, with less than 100,000 people, a guy said that they have more people than that watching a club football match in his country, and they tried to ridicule us, and tried to ridicule me.
Against this backdrop, Warner disclosed that he fought for FIFA to give every country in the world one million US dollars to assist them with their development programmes.
“If I had only known that the problems that I am now experiencing in the Caribbean, I would have thought twice,” he said.
“Dominica, of course, is the worst case, but throughout the Caribbean there are different levels of problems which we are now experiencing which possibly means that I should first have an apprenticeship before I had full membership.”
Warner said that the money given to the countries was not meant to replace government or corporate funding.
“It was meant to supplement it, but because of the money given to these countries, governments have withdrawn their money, businesses have withdrawn their sponsorship, and expect FIFA to be the godfather of all these countries and those are the problems that worry me severely,” he said. (CMC)
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