No one has brought more shame on FIFA than its president Sepp Blatter and he should step aside for a younger leader, the organisation’s former vice president Jack Warner has said.
Warner, who has been accused of soliciting bribes as part of a US-led corruption case against senior soccer officials, left jail in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday after he was granted bail, according to local media.
“Why are there no investigations in Asia, or in Europe?” Warner told German magazine Stern in an interview yesterday.
“Why are there no investigations into Sepp Blatter? No other person has brought so much shame and disgrace on FIFA.”
Warner is among nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives charged by the US Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes.
Asked by Stern if he thought 79-year-old Blatter was corrupt, Warner said: “I only know this: he was elected FIFA boss five times. Is he corrupt? I don’t know.
“If I were his age... I’d retire and pass the presidency of FIFA on to someone younger. But everyone has different ideas of what to do with their lives.”
Once one of the most powerful men in FIFA, Warner surrendered to authorities on Wednesday after US officials sought his extradition.
Prosecutors say Warner solicited bribes worth $10 million from the South African government for them to host the 2010 World Cup and diverted bribes for personal use.
Warner issued a statement protesting his innocence on Wednesday as FIFA reeled from police raids in Switzerland and the US and a second investigation opened by the Swiss authorities into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Warner, who faces 12 charges, including racketeering and bribery, said he was innocent and noted he had left soccer activities four years ago.
The 72-year-old resigned from FIFA after ethics investigations were begun into a meeting he held with former Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammed Bin Hammam where payments were made to Caribbean soccer officials ahead of the election for FIFA president in 2011.
The pressure on Blatter intensified yesterday after a second English FA director resigned from a FIFA post and a long-serving executive committee member warned that he is considering his future.
Heather Rabbatts, one of the English FA’s two independent directors, has resigned from FIFA’s anti-discrimination task force following Blatter’s re-election as president.
Rabbatts said it was “unacceptable” that so little has been done to reform FIFA and that the latest corruption crisis was “disastrous” for the world governing body’s reputation.
Her action follows FA vice-chairman David Gill rejecting his place on the FIFA executive committee in protest at Blatter’s election victory.
Meanwhile, FIFA’s medical chief Michel D’Hooghe is considering his own future within the world governing body and is expected to make a decision following a UEFA meeting in Berlin ahead of the Champions League final on Saturday.