You can trust me!
Jack Warner, continental Europe’s self-proclaimed Arbiter of Likes and Dislikes* is also special advisor to the the Trinidad & Tobago national football team. His country’s foremost parliamentarian, Warner stands in as prime minister when the real prime minister is overseas. Oh, and Warner’s also the president of Concacaf. Svengali? Jack’s been called worse.
Luckily for the T&T National Team– the group that went to Germany in 2006, in particular– Warner does not hold a seat on the London-based Sport Dispute Resolution Panel (SDRP). That independent court has ordered Warner and his cronies at the The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) to pay the Soca Warriors the money they were promised ahead of the German World Cup– money they have yet to receive more than four years after their last match in Kaiserslautern.
Insult to injury
The agreement, as negotiated by Warner himself, guaranteed the players a 50-50 split of the profit (revenue minus expenses!) the federation took in as part of the team’s World Cup finals campaign. That pot included everything from pre-tournament friendly gate money to t-shirt sales. It was expected to be– and is– a terrfic sum.
Yet when the time to came to pay up, Warner and Co. got stingy. Like, criminally stingy. Each player would receive personal checks for… wait for it… $5,644. Doing some quick math, that would mean the federation made a grand total of just less than $130,000 for the tournament. …Exactly.
The players rejected those figures and immediately retained outside counsel. With court proceedings underway, and some highbrow English lawyers and moneymen clamoring for a look at the books, the TTFF came up with some $88 MILLION in “new” profits. There are suggestions that number could, after a proper audit, be more like $180 million.
The court has ordered the players each be paid $1.8 million immediately, with the possibility of more to come after an official review.
Their solicitor, who’s fee will be covered by the federation per the court’s order, was obviously pleased with the ruling, though less than convinced Jack and the boys would actually ever hand over the money.
“I knew we should win, but the length of time it was taking to get the judgment made it all a bit uncertain and nerve-racking,” Lawyer Michael Townley said. “In the end, it was worth the wait …Now, getting paid is the next step, and we recognize that we are dealing with a party who seems determined to carry on regardless of any amount of evidence… Nobody forced [the TTFF] hand to enter in an agreement, so at what point will they seek to recognize it?”
Good question. Bold prediction: the case has not met its final courtroom.
*That’s not a real position. The rest are.
From five grand to almost two million? Wow. I’d say the four year wait will be worth it.
Highbrow English lawyer here, although don’t really see myself in that light (very often)! The article is wrong in a couple of respects; first the Arbitration award is for 50% of the gross monies, not minus expenses, and that was a very important point for us to win in the arbitration. Secondly, the court has not yet ordered any sum to be paid, we will return to court on 23 Sept and we hope to receive an order for an interim payment then.
Woo, now we have highbrow English lawyers visiting the blog! American lawyers, English lawyers. Watch out, world.
Thanks for writing in, Mike! Best of luck with the return to court… email us and let us know how it goes!
Hi. As I am living in Trinidad and was involved in this case from the start, thought I’d give you a brief update. After many delaying tactics by TTFF, the judge at the High Court in Trinidad delivered his ruling last week. Unfortunately for TTFF, the judge has some experience in accounting! He described TTFF accounts as “Unaccountable” and “cloudy” and said he had never seen such poorly prepared accounts. He noted that certain monetary items were missing, including a FIFA payment. He ordered that TTFF make an interim payment of US$1.1 million. He ordered TTFF to produce every document including emails, relevant to the 2006 income. It seems this judge has the bit between his teeth and is determined to resolve how much money there was and where it has disapeared to. TTFF president, Oliver Camps has said he will comply with the order, however, as TTFF is broke, they may go bankrupt unless Jack Warner will lend the money. Interestingly, Jack Warner stated that “he is no longer involved”. Like you can just conveniently walk away! Warner was head of the 2006 Local Organising Committee and was responsible for raising the sponsorship money. It was he who negotiated a 30% split for the squad, then increased it to 50%. It was also Warner who presented a spreadsheet showing the players were only entitled to TT$5,644 each. So, now that it has been proven that that spreadsheet was innaccurate, Mr Warner is the man who needs to answer questions. Bankruptcy laws here state that if a company goes files for bankruptcy and this is caused by poor financial management or financial wrongdoing, the chief officers may be held personally accountable and their assets seized. Camps is President of TTFF while Warner was head of 2006 LOC. To add to Warners worries is that he is currently Minister of Works & Transport, the govt department with the largest budget. So, the question is: if he cannot satifactorily account for TT$188 million, how can he be charged with looking after a budget of TT$ billions? Also, given that his govt was elected on a platform of honesty, transparency and anti corruption, if a single dollar from 2006 entered Warners personal accounts, his position as Minister is in jeopardy. Considering he was rumoured to have finance the govts campaign, it is conseivable that such a scandal may force the govt to stand down too!
Of course, no allegations have been made or proved, so at this stage, its just conjecture. The next issue is whether FIFA will try to interfere. They threatened to kick out Ghana when authorities took computers from the Ghanna football federation to investigate corruption there. Under pressure from FIFA, they were forced to return everything. As Warner is a FIFA vice president, you wonder if they will try the same trick? However, as any investigation is part of a court case with ruled against TTFF, it would be very difficult for FIFA to interfere.
Interesting times ahead!