Police chief wants FIFA’s file on Warner

Gibbs made the statement in a press release yesterday, responding to a five-day ultimatum given by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley on Thursday to change his position on starting a criminal investigation into alleged bribery that occurred at the meeting.

The controversial meeting held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain, on May 10 and 11, led to a full investigation by FIFA’s Ethics Committee and to the temporary suspension of FIFA vice-president and Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner and bin Hammam, until its completion.

Since Warner’s suspension on May 29 by the committee, Rowley made several calls in the media for Warner’s removal as a Cabinet minister and for a police investigation into the meeting and alleged bribery.

At a press conference on Tuesday at the Police Service Commission’s office, Gibbs told the media that a criminal investigation into the meeting and Warner could only be undertaken by police through official reports and tangible information.

“Until we (police) receive information that suggests that a criminal investigation should be initiated, we will not investigate this,” he said. In response, while speaking to reporters at a media conference at the Opposition Leader’s office, Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday, Rowley said: “I’m giving him (Gibbs) five days to reverse his position or we will report him to the Police Service Commission...The CoP has to report to somebody.”

The release also denied Rowley’s accusation that Gibbs’ position on the matter was a dereliction of duty.
Gibbs said: “There has been no official report made by any member of society, or by any official of FIFA with regards to alleged criminal conduct based on reports carried by the media.”

In the statement, Gibbs responded to calls by Rowley and Opposition senator Fitzgerald Hinds for the police to investigate the allegation that approximately US$1 million was brought into the country, contrary to the Foreign Exchange Act and the Customs Act to pay bribes to the CFU officials in exchange for votes in the FIFA presidential election held on June 1. “With respect to the alleged US$1 million, the Comptroller of Customs has jurisdiction over this matter,” Gibbs said.

“Clause 3 of the Act states: There shall be exempted from the provisions of Section 22(1)(b) of the act, the importation into T&T by the traveller on his person or in his baggage of foreign currency notes which are or have at any time been legal tender in any country to the extent of US$5,000 currency in value.”

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian late yesterday evening, Hinds said that the Opposition was relieved with Gibbs’ decision. “We (Opposition) are happy that the Police Commissioner has recanted from the comfortable position he had previously taken,” Hinds said. “He is beginning his inquires by making a request to FIFA...That is a good place to start.

“Once he has done that, then the very reasonable accusation of dereliction of duty begins to dissipate.”
Hinds also expressed the view that Gibbs should liaise with the Comptroller of Customs to provide T&T with answers to questions asked on the matter. “We are relieved that the commissioner has begun to do his work as dictated by the Police Service Act...all we ask is he does it promptly,” he said.

Warner, attending the Government’s Tobago retreat and the Prime Minister’s round of public engagements, was not available for comment. He returns from Tobago this evening. Warner’s attorney Om Lalla, commenting on the Police Commissioner’s action, said: “The commissioner is entitled to conduct his own investigations, and if he determines that there is any wrongdoing, it’s for  him to determine who is culpable or liable as a result of that and he will act appropriately.”

Lalla said the FIFA probe involving Warner was still pending and he had not received any word from that end yet, on a date for hearing.

Kamla: Jack where were you?
By Andre Bagoo.

AFTER INDICATING that he will not meet with FIFA investigators over bribery allegations, Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner yesterday failed to attend several Cabinet functions held at Tobago.

Warner’s absence prompted Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to say at one event that when next she sees Warner she will ask him where he was.

“When next I see him I will ask him: where were you?” Persad-Bissessar told a crowd gathered at the opening of a community information technology centre at Bethel, Tobago, amidst a whirlwind tour of that island.

Persad-Bissessar was in the process of introducing the crowd to members of her Cabinet during a speech when members of the crowd twice questioned Warner’s absence.

On the first occasion, the Prime Minister said she will ask Warner where he was. On the second occasion, a woman asked, “Where Jack Warner?”

“I don’t know,” Persad-Bissessar responded. She again said, “when I see him I will ask him: where were you?”

Warner yesterday missed a Cabinet tour of a school for the deaf, the opening of a new community centre at Bethel and the opening of a new CEPEP office at Scarborough, all at Tobago.

Warner’s absence came after he ignored questions from the media at a Cabinet retreat at Store Bay. At the same time, he was on Thursday reported to have indicated that he will not meet FIFA investigators charged with probing allegations of bribery against him unless summoned.

Warner, alleged along with fellow FIFA member Mohamed bin Hammam to have paid bribes to Caribbean associations, told Press Association Sport: “I have not received any summons asking me to speak with them (the investigators) nor do I plan to do so.”

He is was not clear if he would have attended the People’s Partnership’s thanksgiving service at Mason Hall Secondary School last night. A release from his ministry indicated that he was due to participate in a 5k at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain in Trinidad, casting doubt on if he will be on the Partnership’s platform at a one-year-anniversary public meeting at Old Market Square, Scarborough, Tobago.

Blatter welcomes Warner’s move to keep e-mail private.
T&T Guardian Reports.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter FIFA President Sepp Blatter has stated that he welcomes the move by Jack Warner, the former Concacaf president, who has been at the heart of Fifa’s power structure for nearly three decades and is suspended pending an investigation of bribery allegations, not to reveal further details of his threatened “football tsunami.”

“If you have a problem inside your family you are not going to disclose if there is anything to be disclosed to the public,” Blatter said on Monday.

Warner published an e-mail from Jérôme Valcke in which he claimed Qatar had “bought” the 2022 World Cup but subsequently said he would say no more after legal advice. Asked whether it would not be more transparent to have allowed Warner to have his say, Blatter responded: “These are allegations and there is no evidence, so, if somebody says it’s a tsunami, you know there are also very little tsunamis.”

Blatter, who was the only candidate for the presidency after his rival Mohamed bin Hammam was suspended in the wake of bribery allegations by his fellow executive committee member American Chuck Blazer, said rebuilding Fifa’s reputation was his number one priority.

“I have said ‘zero tolerance’ is one thing but I have also said the social and cultural implementation of football is important … but now it’s to rebuild the image of Fifa, that’s No1, and I have already started,” he said. The 75-year-old, Swiss, who reiterated that he had “represented” Fifa for 36 years and claimed it was “my Fifa”, refused to comment on whether there would be any further investigation into Valcke’s leaked e-mail.

“I said, I will take this item once the congress is over. The congress is now over, so this week, during these days I will have a look on that.” The Fifa President also insisted he was the right man to lead Fifa in the wake of the fierce criticism it has attracted in recent weeks from politicians, media and the public.

“Automatically a lot of devils came in to the game and now we are in a situation where really, and I explained to the congress and I’m happy that the congress understood what I have said, we have to go forward and we have to cut all these allegations, criticism, whatever. We can’t do it in one day but we will do it.”

Blatter,  meantime has named the opera singer Plácido Domingo as the latest addition to the “council of wisdom” he claims will help restore Fifa’s battered reputation. “These gentlemen are more or less advisers, they are not the experts but advisers and what they should be also is the kind of council of wisdom which my executive committee would not like because they think they are the council of wisdom, but I have also contacted the Spanish singer,” he told CNN, before appealing to his interviewer to recall the name.

Prompted, Blatter continued: “Plácido Domingo will be part … he is happy, he is proud that he is part … as [Dr Henry] Kissinger also! People say he is an old man but he is a wise man.” Kissinger confirmed at the weekend that he had been asked by Blatter to join the committee but said he was awaiting more detail before committing himself.

Johan Cruyff has also been named by Blatter as one of the “politicians, celebrities and former footballers” who will make up the committee. It has turned into a game of he said, he said, depending on the time of day. It was Chuck Blazer’s turn to fire back at Lisle Austin, the acting Concacaf president, who claims he has fired the New York City resident as the confederation’s general secretary.

“I still have my job, very much so,” Blazer was quoted by WorldFootballInsider.com  after Sepp Blatter was re-elected FIFA president in Zurich, Switzerland. “There is no problem,” added Blazer, a member of the FIFA executive committee. “The majority of the executive committee has said very clearly that I have a job and they are the only ones who can control it.” Concacaf faces its biggest crisis in years, if not decades. “I have always been comfortable with Concacaf,” Blazer told WorldFootballInsider.com.

“There’s an individual who thinks he has more power than he does.” There is a growing divide between two factions in the confederation, already has spoiled preparations for the Concacaf Gold Cup. A day prior to the June 25 final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Concacaf is supposed to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Heaven knows what shape the organisation will be in politically and if the members will be talking to each other. Austin, a native of Barbados, was named acting head after Concacaf president Jack Warner was provisionally suspended by the FIFA ethics committee because bribe allegations in the organisation’s presidential campaign were made by Blazer. Austin is a good friend of Warner.