Former soccer official Jack Warner claims FIFA’s $6 million gift toward a training center in Trinidad was to support Sepp Blatter’s first election as president in 1998. Warner says a deal in May 1998 with then-FIFA President Joao Havelange ensured backing from the CONCACAF region for Blatter in what turned out to be a tight contest against Lennart Johansson.
“Blatter would never have seen the light of day as president of FIFA without 30 CONCACAF votes,” Warner said in a speech distributed to international media yesterday. It’s the latest attack on FIFA since Warner promised a ‘tsunami’ of revelations after the then-FIFA vice president was implicated in a bribery scandal while opposing Blatter’s latest election two years ago.
To add to Warners claims, a British author David Yallop wrote in a book published in 1999 that up to 20 Africans were paid by Middle East interests to abandon their promised support for Johansson, which probably would have given him 100 votes and momentum to beat Blatter in the second ballot. However, FIFA is yet to respond to the latest development on the bribery scandal rocking the world football ruling body
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