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Jack Warner’s forgotten men still await payday
Patrick Barclay
6 COMMENTS
RECOMMEND? (3)
The next stage of England’s campaign to host the 2018 World Cup, due shortly, is the presentation of the bid book. It would dignify the whole process if Jack Warner, one of the most influential Fifa bigwigs involved, were to open his own books. The legal process patiently awaits sight of them — as do 13 Trinidad & Tobago footballers yet to be paid sums negotiated nearly five years ago for their part in the last World Cup.
You may vaguely remember the joyous scenes that accompanied Trinidad & Tobago’s qualification, and more sharply recall the obduracy of their resistance before Peter Crouch, having subtly tugged Brent Sancho’s dreadlocks, headed England into a late lead in Nuremberg.
The beaten goalkeeper was Shaka Hislop. He still awaits his money, conservatively estimated at £80,000 a man. Likewise Kenwyne Jones, who had come on as a debutant substitute, unaware that fate was to have him rubbing shoulders with Crouch and company in the Barclays Premier League.
Jones earns about £2.5 million a year from Sunderland, so his need for the £80,000 (or even double) being withheld by Warner is less than pressing. But several of the 13 are out of work, the latest being Kelvin Jack, whose short-term contract as a reserve goalkeeper with Southend United expired on Saturday. Jack, who was 34 last week, once earned £80,000 a year with Gillingham, before suffering a broken leg on loan at Barnsley. Those halcyon days may never return and he has a family to feed, clothe and educate.
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United may rue missed chance to take Mourinho
Warner’s family certainly get by. A man with more hats than Imelda Marcos had shoes, he has long been the leading light of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and president of the footballing region (Concacaf) that includes Mexico and the United States. Warner also serves as a Fifa vice-president, which alone would be a guarantee of a lavish, expenses-paid lifestyle, without his other interests.
They include a political ambition that became evident when he was elected chairman of the United National Congress Alliance in 2007. Anyone voting for Warner in the forthcoming elections will be aware of his spiky approach to international relations.
Last year he poured scorn on England’s World Cup bid, saying it lacked “stardust” and describing the country’s footballing establishment as “an irritant”.
When the FA tried a peace offering in the form of a handbag given to his wife — along with the partners of other Fifa dignitaries — at a dinner in London, he angrily sent it back with a letter to Lord Triesman, the FA independent chairman, complaining that “her character and mine” had been tainted by the gift, which had become “a symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment”.
Embarrassment, however, tends to be like water off this duck’s back. After the 2006 World Cup, for instance, Fifa’s auditors estimated that the Warner family travel company had made more than £500,000 from selling match tickets for the tournament at up to three times face value. A fine was said to have been imposed, but Warner’s position within Fifa remained unaffected.
This has also been true of his dispute with the 13 players, however damning the details. After the 2006 World Cup, the TTFF declared revenue of £1.5 million and costs of almost the same amount and offered the players less than £500 each. When they refused, Warner accused them of “greed”. It was later revealed that revenue had been nearly £15 million.
The TTFF proposed arbitration by the UK Sports Dispute Resolution Panel and, after a hearing in May 2008, Ian Mill, QC, ruled overwhelmingly in favour of the 13 players (others, including Dwight Yorke, had accepted settlements). No money has been forthcoming, despite recourse last October to the Trinidad & Tobago High Court. “We have questioned the reason for such a delay,” the players said in a circumspect statement.
Warner claims that he is no longer liable for the sums because the players breached a confidentiality agreement.
You can be sure that the FA will not be making awkward inquiries of Warner, and this is understandable, given the importance it places in the bid’s success.
Fifa has its own “ethics panel” but it was set up after the 2006 World Cup and we are told that it cannot deal with “retrospective matters”. The panel has nevertheless issued a stern call for impeccable ethics as the 2018 process advances. By removing the shadow of the Warner dispute — by insisting that his organisation pays up or loses its seat at the game’s top table — Fifa could endow the era of Sepp Blatter, whose presidency is said to owe much to the vote-delivering power of Warner, with an ethical legacy, against all the odds.
Grant fails to get the message
When you hear Avram Grant talk about the Holocaust and how it devastated his family, you have respect. And he seems to be good at his job. But I still thought his address to the Fratton Park faithful on Saturday was about as naff as a football manager’s behaviour could become. Not so much the medium as the message.
He stood on the pitch, microphone in hand, and delivered an oration that came to the following climax: “They will never destroy our spirit — never!”
So who were “they”? The naughty people who had docked Portsmouth nine points, of course, and imposed transfer embargoes and done terrible things such as that, for no reason other than that the club had amassed debts last estimated at £119 million, cheating the public purse, individuals, businesses and even charities.
The football authorities, notably the Premier League, bent over backwards to help Portsmouth — indeed were far too lenient with successive owners — and for Grant to imply that “they” were in any way to blame for the supporters’ travails was an insult to his audience’s intelligence.
No one outside the club has done Portsmouth a disfavour. Quite the opposite. And those of us who refused to sob on behalf of Luton Town fans when their club were given a proper punishment — 30 points — are certainly not going to weep like crocodiles now.
Weighty case for goalscorer
We keep hearing that Fabio Capello’s flight to South Africa is fully booked, but still the standby passengers drift in. After Bobby Zamora, who must surely be given a chance up front for England against Mexico at Wembley this month, big Tom Huddlestone strolls into the departure lounge with the nonchalant look of one who smacks irresistible winners against Bolton Wanderers and, upon being asked if it was net-bound from the moment it left his foot, replies: “Not with Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal.”
Huddlestone has style. He has two feet and an eye for a pass. He can tackle and, to put it mildly, shoot. If he had a bit more pace, every midfield player in Capello’s squad would be entitled to discomfort. As it is, he threatens mainly the inconsistent Michael Carrick.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/patrick_barclay/article7114516.ece
Patrick Barclay
6 COMMENTS
RECOMMEND? (3)
The next stage of England’s campaign to host the 2018 World Cup, due shortly, is the presentation of the bid book. It would dignify the whole process if Jack Warner, one of the most influential Fifa bigwigs involved, were to open his own books. The legal process patiently awaits sight of them — as do 13 Trinidad & Tobago footballers yet to be paid sums negotiated nearly five years ago for their part in the last World Cup.
You may vaguely remember the joyous scenes that accompanied Trinidad & Tobago’s qualification, and more sharply recall the obduracy of their resistance before Peter Crouch, having subtly tugged Brent Sancho’s dreadlocks, headed England into a late lead in Nuremberg.
The beaten goalkeeper was Shaka Hislop. He still awaits his money, conservatively estimated at £80,000 a man. Likewise Kenwyne Jones, who had come on as a debutant substitute, unaware that fate was to have him rubbing shoulders with Crouch and company in the Barclays Premier League.
Jones earns about £2.5 million a year from Sunderland, so his need for the £80,000 (or even double) being withheld by Warner is less than pressing. But several of the 13 are out of work, the latest being Kelvin Jack, whose short-term contract as a reserve goalkeeper with Southend United expired on Saturday. Jack, who was 34 last week, once earned £80,000 a year with Gillingham, before suffering a broken leg on loan at Barnsley. Those halcyon days may never return and he has a family to feed, clothe and educate.
RELATED LINKS
Anfield exit looms and Benítez shouldn’t walk alone
Why Hodgson must be manager of the year
United may rue missed chance to take Mourinho
Warner’s family certainly get by. A man with more hats than Imelda Marcos had shoes, he has long been the leading light of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and president of the footballing region (Concacaf) that includes Mexico and the United States. Warner also serves as a Fifa vice-president, which alone would be a guarantee of a lavish, expenses-paid lifestyle, without his other interests.
They include a political ambition that became evident when he was elected chairman of the United National Congress Alliance in 2007. Anyone voting for Warner in the forthcoming elections will be aware of his spiky approach to international relations.
Last year he poured scorn on England’s World Cup bid, saying it lacked “stardust” and describing the country’s footballing establishment as “an irritant”.
When the FA tried a peace offering in the form of a handbag given to his wife — along with the partners of other Fifa dignitaries — at a dinner in London, he angrily sent it back with a letter to Lord Triesman, the FA independent chairman, complaining that “her character and mine” had been tainted by the gift, which had become “a symbol of derision, betrayal and embarrassment”.
Embarrassment, however, tends to be like water off this duck’s back. After the 2006 World Cup, for instance, Fifa’s auditors estimated that the Warner family travel company had made more than £500,000 from selling match tickets for the tournament at up to three times face value. A fine was said to have been imposed, but Warner’s position within Fifa remained unaffected.
This has also been true of his dispute with the 13 players, however damning the details. After the 2006 World Cup, the TTFF declared revenue of £1.5 million and costs of almost the same amount and offered the players less than £500 each. When they refused, Warner accused them of “greed”. It was later revealed that revenue had been nearly £15 million.
The TTFF proposed arbitration by the UK Sports Dispute Resolution Panel and, after a hearing in May 2008, Ian Mill, QC, ruled overwhelmingly in favour of the 13 players (others, including Dwight Yorke, had accepted settlements). No money has been forthcoming, despite recourse last October to the Trinidad & Tobago High Court. “We have questioned the reason for such a delay,” the players said in a circumspect statement.
Warner claims that he is no longer liable for the sums because the players breached a confidentiality agreement.
You can be sure that the FA will not be making awkward inquiries of Warner, and this is understandable, given the importance it places in the bid’s success.
Fifa has its own “ethics panel” but it was set up after the 2006 World Cup and we are told that it cannot deal with “retrospective matters”. The panel has nevertheless issued a stern call for impeccable ethics as the 2018 process advances. By removing the shadow of the Warner dispute — by insisting that his organisation pays up or loses its seat at the game’s top table — Fifa could endow the era of Sepp Blatter, whose presidency is said to owe much to the vote-delivering power of Warner, with an ethical legacy, against all the odds.
Grant fails to get the message
When you hear Avram Grant talk about the Holocaust and how it devastated his family, you have respect. And he seems to be good at his job. But I still thought his address to the Fratton Park faithful on Saturday was about as naff as a football manager’s behaviour could become. Not so much the medium as the message.
He stood on the pitch, microphone in hand, and delivered an oration that came to the following climax: “They will never destroy our spirit — never!”
So who were “they”? The naughty people who had docked Portsmouth nine points, of course, and imposed transfer embargoes and done terrible things such as that, for no reason other than that the club had amassed debts last estimated at £119 million, cheating the public purse, individuals, businesses and even charities.
The football authorities, notably the Premier League, bent over backwards to help Portsmouth — indeed were far too lenient with successive owners — and for Grant to imply that “they” were in any way to blame for the supporters’ travails was an insult to his audience’s intelligence.
No one outside the club has done Portsmouth a disfavour. Quite the opposite. And those of us who refused to sob on behalf of Luton Town fans when their club were given a proper punishment — 30 points — are certainly not going to weep like crocodiles now.
Weighty case for goalscorer
We keep hearing that Fabio Capello’s flight to South Africa is fully booked, but still the standby passengers drift in. After Bobby Zamora, who must surely be given a chance up front for England against Mexico at Wembley this month, big Tom Huddlestone strolls into the departure lounge with the nonchalant look of one who smacks irresistible winners against Bolton Wanderers and, upon being asked if it was net-bound from the moment it left his foot, replies: “Not with Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal.”
Huddlestone has style. He has two feet and an eye for a pass. He can tackle and, to put it mildly, shoot. If he had a bit more pace, every midfield player in Capello’s squad would be entitled to discomfort. As it is, he threatens mainly the inconsistent Michael Carrick.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/patrick_barclay/article7114516.ece
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