Former Soca Warrior Brent Sancho said the latest CONCACAF report revealing financial dealing during the tenure of former president Jack Warner, shows a similarity and a pattern in how Warner dealt with the senior team issue.
Yesterday the head of the CONCACAF Integrity Committee David Simmons described the regional body’s former president Warner and general secretary Chuck Blazer as “fraudulent in their management”.
Asked if there was anything in the 113-page report that would aid the Soca Warriors in their multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), Sancho said: “I think one thing it (the report) does show is there is a line or mirror of what was done at the TTFF, of what was done with the accounts there. It is very similar in terms of lack of transparency and accountability.
Sancho said there were also similarities in the relationship with accountant Kenny Rampersad, also named in the Simmons report.
On the opening day of the CONCACAF Congress in Panama yesterday, Simmons, a former Barbados chief justice presented a detailed report into the activities of the regional body under Warner and Blazer based on documents and interviews with 38 people.
“I have recounted a sad and sorry tale in the life of CONCACAF, a tale of abuse of position and power, by persons who assisted in bringing the organisation to profitability but who enriched themselves at the expense of their very own organisations,” said Simmons.
The report mirrored the findings of a report by Trinidad Express investigative reporter Camini Maraj that Warner did not disclose to CONCACAF, which presides over football in North, Central America and the Caribbean, or the world governing body FIFA, that the US $25.9 million Centre of Excellence was built on land owned by his companies.
Asked about the 2006 World Cup footballers dispute with the TTFF, Sancho said they had been meeting with TTFF president Raymond Tim Kee.
“We have quite decent discussions with Mr Tim Kee.
We are still trying to get this matter resolved and hopefully both parties could come to some plausible resolution soon,” Sancho said.
But he admitted that while he would commend Tim Kee on his valiant efforts to resolve the matter, Sancho recognised the TTFF president was between a rock and a hard place.
“Obviously, he (Tim Kee) is coming into a situation where there is no money anywhere because of what happened before him and it is going to take some very strong movement within his structure (TTFF) and his dealings with CONCACAF and FIFA to get this resolved,” he said.
Sancho said the TTFF should also consider going after Warner to recuperate monies that he said,”the Federation should have now but they don’t!”