The Manicou Report

Today’s Daily Mail

This morning I was sitting at my desk wondering what I could blog about today when I get this e-mail from a reader in England who sends me a story carried today in the Daily Mail. And what do you know, Warner is being investigated for shady deals. Now you may be tempted to think that since this is Warner, this must be an old story, however check out the date on the story.

Basically the story alleges that Warner and his son Daryan cleared a profit of at least £500,000 on 5,400 tickets for England, Mexico and Japan matches over the course of this year’s World Cup. It alleges that Jack Warner set up secret deals to sell thousands of World Cup tickets on the black market, making himself and his son millions.

This may seem a little old to us here in Trinidad & Tobago since it became known that a travel agency owned by the Warners was the sole local ticket retailer for Germany 2006. But now that Warner, Simpaul Travel and all their alleged shady dealings are headlining The Daily Mail’s Sports page, ah feeling shame, shame, shame.

The story surmises that the reason Warner did not feel the wrath of FIFA as other offenders have, is that he controls 35 crucial votes that keep FIFA president Sepp Blatter in power. And when you’re in charge of covering the boss’s butt, you know you’re in a position of power (no homosexual double meanings were intended in that very last sentence).

Now Fox Sports reports that FIFA will look into the claims of corruption saying:

“A FIFA spokesman declined to comment on the media report, but said the allegations would be discussed during a meeting of FIFA’s executive committee on Friday in Zurich.”

Does this come as a surprise to us here? Not really. After Mr. Warner allegedly grossly oversold tickets to the 1989 World Cup qualifier against the United States, nothing surprises me.

It also makes me wonder if FIFA got wind of Warner’s promise to hand over the Centre of Excellence if Dookeran were to regain his seat at the next General Election. How do you think they would feel about that?

*Please excuse my alleged overuse of the words “alleged” and all its minions. It’s a deliberate effort on my part not to be sued by Jack Warner……who is an amazing and upright man.