Jack Warner: Sneakier Than a Drogba/CRon Hybrid
CONCACAF's Jack Warner/The Wire's Clay Davis. Same thing, really.
Less than a week ago, the England bid for the 2018 World Cup was in shambles. A burning wreck. A laughing stock. A hollowed-out carcass on the Serengeti, picked clean by vultures, hyenas, and other predatory animals, namely Jack Warner, the Trinidad & Tobago’s esteemed wheeler-dealer, the keeper of FIFA dreams and protectorate of promises. The King of Kickbacks. The Sultan of Surfeit. The State Senator Clay Davis of the world soccer scene, if you will.
Ever the charmer, it was Warner who first caused a ruckus in London with his loud, unnecessary return of a rather cheap handbag, not to mention Warner’s public criticisms of the bid, its organization, and the puzzling absence of David Beckham.
And this was before all the members of the bid team jumping ship, or threatening to, or simply being released from their duties!
Cut to this past Saturday, when, after a meeting with Gordon Brown, Jack simply cannot gladhand the English enough, proclaiming their bid to be back on track and supporting their cause entirely. Something about “best infrastructure,” I believe. Warner was soon followed by the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which I’m sure means that soon, the Brazilian FA chief Ricardo Teixeira (and son-in-law of Blatter’s predecessor, Joao Havelange) will join the act. And thus, the lumbering FIFA machine slowly turns in England’s favor.
So why the sudden change of heart?
As written in this glorious paragraph of a weekly column (2nd item down), it appears that 11 months after the 2018 World Cup host is decided, the host for the 2018 Commonwealth Games will be picked, and ol’ Jack wants those athletics to come to Trinidad & Tobago. Realizing that England’s bid for the World Cup might be in tatters, thus opting for the fallback of those Games, he’s suddenly rallying support to give England the big prize so his nation has a better shot of profiting directly with the Commonwealth Games, should they fall T&T’s way.
Simple, really; Warner agrees his votes/power for England WC 2018, and England backs T&T for the Games. Back-scratching 101, folks, and I have to commend Warner for once again proving that nothing he ever does or says isn’t directly related to his own well-being and/or bank accounts.
The Guardian also cobbled a list of the 24 members of FIFA’s Executive Committee, aka the Folks With Those Votes, and most of them are firmly in Blatter’s pocket. Heck, that’s why they’re on that Committee. Take Issa Hayatou, for one. He was Blatter’s biggest rival in the last elections, but the end of his campaign for FIFA Presidency timed nicely with the bounty of major soccer tournaments in Africa recently: the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria, the U-20 World Cup in Egypt, the Big Boys’ World Cup next summer in South Africa and, for his own personal enjoyment, the nomination as Head of the World Cup 2010 Organizing Committee, a gig that surely comes with a nice paycheck and even nicer expense account.
In short, Warner’s word will go a long way to ensuring that England don’t need to do too much wooing, and thus rubbishing my confident shout that England would be shut out in 2018 and 2022. And how funny/ironic/insane it is that the man with the biggest argument against England once upon a time is now our biggest and most vocal ally.
As our friends in Bawlmor once noted, it’s all in the game, right? That said, Jack Warner is a man without a code.
Comments
Brown won’t be PM for much longer, let’s see how the Conservatives warm to him.
Well, Shhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Italy 1-0 Argentina in ‘18 Final. Buffon and Maldini are the heroes.
didn’t the CONCACAF board already say that they were putting their support behind the US? or is he not a part of the concacaf board?
/threadjack
@Georger: the UK is lucky to have actual conservatives like David Cameron.
/end threadjack
Charley: CONCACAF have said a lot of things. Right now, it appears that they’ll vote USA for 2022, at least according to Warner’s sudden about-turn on his allegiances for 2018.
gotcha. thanks. warner’s effin’ crazy.
I really really wouldn’t count Russia out in this whole mess either. No one loves bribes and under the table dirty deeds like FIFA, and few do it better than Russia.
Also, I don’t think Concacaf Jack knows which side of his mouth he’s talking out of anymore. Just two weeks ago he went on BBC 5 Live and told them he was done speaking about the entire bid process until it was time to vote. Then for the previous two weeks he’s been doing the exact opposite of that.
[...] Jack Warner is sneaky. [Unprofessional Foul] [...]
Ryan: that’s kinda the point. He switches to suit whatever benefits him most.
Oh, totally agreed. I realize I wasn’t exactly breaking new ground with that comment. Just more of a rant at an incredible sack of garbage.