FIFA bans ex-Blatter deputy, Warner, for life

FIFA’s ethics committee on Tuesday banned former vice-president Jack Warner from football-related activities for life.
Warner, who left FIFA in 2011 after being implicated in a bribery scandal, was investigated by the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee following its report on the inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.

“Mr. Warner was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football),’’ a statement said.
“In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments as well as other money-making schemes.”
The ban took effect from Friday, September 25 – the date the Swiss attorney-general’s office announced it began a criminal investigation into FIFA president, Joseph Blatter.
Part of the Swiss investigation concerns a contract signed in 2005 by Blatter with the Caribbean Football Union, led at the time by Warner, which was “unfavourable for FIFA.’’
Warner, 72, from Trinidad and Tobago, is currently on $2.5m bail awaiting extradition to the US, where he faces indictment on racketeering charges.
He was a member of FIFA’s executive committee from 1983-2011, and was president of CONCACAF from 1990-2011.
The ethics committee has yet to make a statement on Blatter, who will step down at an extraordinary FIFA congress in Zurich on February 26, 2016.
Former Brazil international Zico, who is a potential candidate to succeed Blatter, called for “immediate clarification’’ from FIFA’s ethics committee on Blatter and UEFA president, Michel Platini, who has been questioned as a witness by Swiss prosecutors.
FIFA presidential contender, Chung Mong Joon, meanwhile called on Tuesday for an emergency task force to run FIFA, saying football’s world governing body is in “total meltdown.’’
The South Korean former FIFA vice-president said the task force “will enable FIFA secretariat to function without interruption’’ during its leadership crisis.