Ex-FIFA Official Threatens To Spill 'Avalanche' Of Secrets

Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice president who was among 14 people indicted by the United States last week as part of an inquiry into corruption in world soccer, has said he knows why the organization's president, Sepp Blatter, announced plans to step down from soccer's governing body. (FIFA Scandal Spreads Around the Globe)

"Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do," Warner said in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, referring to Blatter's decision this week to resign after 17 years at the helm of FIFA, soccer's governing body. Warner, who said he feared for his own life, also said he had evidence linking FIFA to his country's 2010 election. (FIFA Allegations 'Despicable', Says David Beckham)

Warner was once a close ally of Chuck Blazer, the former general secretary of CONCACAF, the governing body that oversees soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Blazer has admitted taking bribes from bidders seeking to host the 1998 and 2010 World Cups and is now cooperating with the U.S. authorities. On Wednesday, a judge in New York ordered the release of a redacted version of his plea hearing in 2013. (White House Thinks FIFA can Benefit From 'New Leadership')

Warner's sons, Daryan and Daryll, are also cooperating with authorities, having secretly pleaded guilty in 2013 after they tried to deposit more than $600,000 in nearly two dozen U.S. bank accounts in an attempt to avoid detection. (Ronaldo Urges Reform of Brazil Federation)

During a rambling and sometimes incoherent seven-minute television address, called "The Gloves Are Off," Warner invoked Mahatma Gandhi and sought to cast himself as a victim. In his speech, a paid political advertisement, he said he had reams of documents, including copies of checks, linking Blatter and other senior FIFA officials to an effort to manipulate a 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago.

He said he had delivered his files to "respectable persons" and lawyers, and he warned that he had an "avalanche" of additional evidence.

"I will no longer keep secrets for them who now seek to destroy the country which I love," he said.

It was not clear why FIFA would want to intervene in the country's electoral process, and Warner did not immediately provide any evidence to back his claims. He was later seen addressing a crowd at a political rally.

"I apologize for not disclosing my knowledge of these events before," Warner said, calling himself a "lone isolated soldier." Referring to his arrest last week on charges of bribery and corruption, including a brief stay in jail before he was released on bail, he said that conditions had been "woeful." (FIFA Troubles Won't Impact 2022 World Cup Preparations: Organisers)

He said nothing would prevent him from revealing details of the scandal. "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming," he told his supporters. "The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall." Paraphrasing Gandhi, he said that throughout history there had been tyrants, but that, in the end, they fall.

Warner also said he felt threatened, saying that, "I reasonably actually fear for my life." Yet shortly after the speech was broadcast, he appeared at a rally for his Independent Liberal Party, and seemed resolute. (Jack Warner Alleges FIFA Link to Trinidad Election)

Warner faces a raft of charges, including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering, but he denies the accusations. In 2004, as FIFA's executive committee was deliberating where to hold the 2010 World Cup, prosecutors say that South Africa's government arranged for what amounted to a $10 million bribe to Warner and others in exchange for their votes.

According to the indictment, when FIFA was considering which country would host the 2006 World Cup, Warner sent a relative to a Paris hotel room to collect a briefcase filled with cash in $10,000 stacks from a South African bid-committee official.

South Africa has emphatically denied giving any bribes to ensure it would host the tournament, but news reports Thursday said that the country's organized crime unit had opened a preliminary investigation into the bribery accusations. (Chuck Blazer Accuses FIFA Officials of Accepting Bribes During 1998 and 2010 World Cup Bids)

The Australian police are also investigating corruption accusations in connection to the country's bid for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, amid allegations that funds were misappropriated. The chairman of Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy, published an open letter Wednesday in which he cited an investigation by CONCACAF showing that Warner had committed fraud and misappropriated the funds.

Australian officials in recent days have been voicing their deep disappointment at losing the World Cup to Qatar, and some critics of the Qatari bid are hoping that the small gulf nation could be stripped of the tournament, even as officials there are adamant that their bid was above reproach and that the tournament is not under threat. The sports minister of the Australian state of Victoria, John Eren, said his country could host the World Cup "tomorrow."

© 2015 New York Times News Service