Pirate of the Caribbean

“I don’t think (FIFA vice-president Jack Warner) lived up to expectations,” Peter Jenkins told the TnT Times. “He got sidetracked and got obsessed with the power. I think he focused on Trinidad and Tobago and in a sense whatever was done (there) was at the sacrifice of the other member countries.

“He did not make it a level playing field by seeking to develop the other countries.”

Jenkins might have reason to be sore at the prominent Trinidad and Tobago football administrator and politician, Austin Jack Warner.

On March 1, 2008, at the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) annual congress in Guadeloupe, Warner declared that the CFU would maintain its suspension of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) “from all activities under the aegis of the Union” for failure to pay money demanded by controversial ex-Antiguan football general secretary and Warner’s CONCACAF employee, Chet Greene—the CFU is an affiliate of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), which, in turn, is a confederation of FIFA (the Federation of International Football Association).

Mervyn Richards, brother of West Indies cricket legend Sir Viv Richards and, at the time, president of the ABFA, countered that Greene did not back his claim for $980,000 in “expenses” from the local football body with documentation and unsuccessfully pleaded for FIFA’s understanding.

Jenkins, supported by Grenada Football Association (GFA) president Ashley “Ram” Folkes, objected to Warner and the CFU punishment. They ended up on the rack alongside Richards.

“The (Caribbean Football) Union is supposed to protect its members but the Union had turned on Antigua,” said the 54-year-old Jenkins, a civil engineer who studied at the UWI campus in St Augustine. “I said if someone felt they had a case they could go to the courts to seek recourse but how can the Union suspend its member for the benefit of an outsider? I felt that was wrong and, for that, it was decided my head should go on the chopping block.”

Four months later, at the SKNFA elections, ten clubs walked out in a huff and called Warner. There was still a quorum so the vote continued and Jenkins was re-elected president—he has been in charge of St Kitts and Nevis football since 1994. But, by then, FIFA Legal Committee member John Collins, who acted as Warner’s attorney within the past three years, was already boarding a flight for St Kitts.

Fresh elections were held on March 1, 2009 and Jenkins was replaced by Anthony Johnson by a vote of 17 to 14.

“Some people were brought (by FIFA) to persecute and prosecute,” he said, “and I lost the election by three votes. I was replaced but it was orchestrated outside St Kitts…
“Still, I have no regrets. If I was given the chance I would do the same thing again because what happened to Antigua was wrong.”

In June 2009, Jenkins made an audacious bid to muscle in on Warner’s territory as he challenged the Trinidadian’s close aid and Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell. Jenkins was nominated by Grenada and seconded by Antigua and Barbuda although the Kittian withdrew at the last minute when it became clear that the other islands would not back him.

Warner responded by ordering Jenkins’ removal from CONCACAF and CFU while, in a widely circulated letter that caused some disquiet in the Caribbean, he declared that Grenada and Antigua would be “asked to submit reasons why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for their attempts to destabilise Caribbean football and Caribbean solidarity within the CFU”.

Grenada’s Ashley Folkes has since been replaced as well.

“(Warner) asked ‘who is Grenada to nominate Jenkins without asking me?’” said Jenkins. “And ‘who is Antigua to second that nomination without asking me? They will have to pay.’
“The (CONCACAF) President made a threat and he carried it out. It is a warning that if you disagree with the president this is what will happen to you.”

There was no fire in Jenkins’ tone when he spoke to the TnT Times, just fatigue.

Jenkins and Warner go back some distance. Nineteen years ago, he was in the room when Caribbean football stood at the cusp of history.

In 1990, just months after the United States famously thwarted Trinidad and Tobago who were within one point of a qualifying spot for the Italy World Cup, Warner turned up at the CFU Congress in St Kitts with then United States Soccer Federation (USSF) vice-president Chuck Blazer at his side and told a stunned room of his intention to wrestle the CONCACAF presidency from Mexican incumbent Joaquin Terrazas.

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Warner's Caribbean rule.
By Lasana Liburd (TnTtime.com).

FIFA fines, suspension and threats have been a regular part of life for Caribbean nations under the reign of Trinidad and Tobago administrator and former school teacher Austin Jack Warner, which started in 1990.

The historic rise to the FIFA vice-presidency of the workaholic from humble beginnings promised much for a region that gave birth to gifted footballers like Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, John Barnes and the Trinidad and Tobago duo of Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy.

However, Warner’s critics argue that he cares more about the trappings of power and retaining his seat than helping the islands while his staunch support for tainted football officials also rankled.

In the past four years alone, FIFA intervened in the affairs of six Caribbean nations based on Warner’s recommendation.

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