The allegation against Jack Warner of attempting to illegally persuade an unstated number of his colleagues in Concacaf to vote for the candidacy of Mohammed bin Hammam in next week's presidential election of FIFA could be the greatest challenge yet for the FIFA vice president. This is so because of a number of factors. First, it comes from inside the FIFA executive and, even more to the point, from a close ally and friend of Mr Warner's in Concacaf, the general secretary of that body, the big bruising American Chuck Blazer, who assumed that position the same time that Mr Warner made it to the presidency of the hemispheric football body.
It could also be very challenging to Mr Warner because, unlike in the past, there is no sensible reason for him to get the support of FIFA's incumbent president, the venerable Sepp Blatter. And why that is so is obvious: His challenger just happens to be the alleged accomplice of Mr Warner in this matter. At this point Mr Warner has said he is unaware of the specifics of the allegations but he nevertheless says he is "not aware of any wrongdoing on my part." Nevertheless, Mr Warner has acknowledged the allegations and indicated that he would be on his way to face the FIFA Ethics Committee. However the allegations are played out, at the core of it is the claim that Mr Warner-with the possibility of commanding 35 of the 208 votes which will determine whether Mr Blatter continues to hold this most powerful post in world football or whether the man from Qatar will take over the job-was seeking to broker a deal.
But that is not the only allegation that is being made. There is the one that Mr Blatter's handlers may be getting a bit worried that Mr bin Hammam may have begun to attract attention and so a way had to be found to stop his forward march. Mr Warner himself made the observation in his statement on Wednesday that the allegations against the president of the Asian confederation and himself have come curiously a week before the presidential elections. Over the decades, there have been several allegations against the FIFA executive about corrupt activity. Interestingly, Mr Blatter has always denied such allegations. When Mr bin Hammam was here two weeks ago, he and Mr Warner made their own denials of FIFA being a corrupt body and called for evidence to be provided to support the allegations.
Mr Warner and Mr bin Hammam, like everyone else living in a modern democracy, must be presumed innocent unless/until proven otherwise. So too must there be a presumption at this stage that those making the allegations against two senior and long-serving FIFA executives must have substantiating evidence to back their claims. Surely no one should expect that two resourceful, experienced and politically savvy individuals such as Mr Warner and Mr bin Hammam are likely to easily succumb to allegations, once, as Mr Warner has already said, they have nothing to be worried about. When Mr Warner accepted the position as minister in the People's Partnership Government, there were concerns raised then that his position in the world football body could lead to negative fallout for the Government, if anything were to go wrong.
As we have said, nothing has so far happened to in any way jeopardise the interest of T&T. Nevertheless, and even if matters go in favour of Mr Warner, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar may be concerned that her Government, through Mr Warner, could already be receiving unwanted negative international publicity, and this merely by the allegations now being circulated worldwide. For the moment, though, the Prime Minister and the country need to sit tight and wait for the outcome of the investigations by the FIFA Ethics Committee.