FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner divides his time between mainly, Zurich, New York, Guatemala City and Port of Spain and 153 other countries. We sat to chat at his Port of Spain CONCACAF offices early Friday morning.
Q: An Ash Wednesday home game against the USA to open our World Cup 2006 campaign-how'd you swing that?
A: It wasn't a matter of "swing". We have had the best draw ever in the history of football draws for this country. We have the best possible plan and, while we may not have the best team at whatever time for whatever reasons, we have the best chance for qualifying. Contrary to popular belief in the country and outside, it has been luck and I would say also, prayers -I am a praying man.
Q: But you are very influential in FIFA?
A: Oh, very. I make no apologies for that. I am the longest serving member. I've been there for 23 consecutive years and I should make that work for my advantage, my country's and my federation's advantage.
Q: Do you feel appreciated for all you've done for football?
A: No, I don't at all! And you know something, BC? It doesn't bother me in the least! Possibly years ago it used to but age brings reason and I know the minute I leave Piarco airport, I am somebody, the minute I land here, I am nobody.
That is the attitude of this country from the highest level to the lowest and I have come to terms with that. I am not in any way today offended by the lack of courtesy, the lack of respect, the lack of acknowledgement of my status.
Q: You're literally bigger than that now?
A: Oh sure. I've travelled to over 157 countries, BC. I've met kings and presidents of the highest level. For me to allow that to affect me would be very small of me.
Q: What about the PNM specifically? Do they like you?
A: Some members do. I've taught Ken Valley, Eric Williams, Franklin Khan, Camille Robinson-Regis and a host of others. I've been to school with Hedwige Bereaux.
Individually, I have some friends there; collectively I don't think [so]. I've made the point: you don't have to like Jack Warner; you don't have to eat with him, you don't have to sleep with him but, Jesus Christ, you could work with him!
As I can work with them! If the PNM want to punish Jack Warner for his political affiliation with the UNC-of which I am extremely proud-then do it!
But don't let the sport suffer! But they squeeze football in the hope of punishing Jack Warner. It is over three years to this day I've been asking the government for help to get this team to Germany. To this day, they haven't given me a nickel!
Q: [Sports Minister] Roger Boynes told me the complete opposite two weeks ago?
A: He told you he gave football $4 million; what he means [is] he gave professional football $4M as prize money! Six clubs play in a league! I created that league and, after losing $21M after six years, I realised the league was not going the way I wanted and I said, let me step back.
And they put a chairman in place who, for them fortuitously, is a top party member, a past campaign manager of ministers and he could use his clout to get $4M; Boynes didn't get that for them! Boynes gave the [Trinidad and Tobago Football] Federation $250,000 for a youth development programme! Mr Pires, the Under-17 team spends that every month! [That] team is now playing to reach the world championship. These guys went to Cuba.
How they reach there? Who paid their fees, [for] uniforms, allowances and so on? Not that I want government support that much but, if they are helping, say so; if they are not, say so. What they are doing is allowing the football federation and sport in general to become mendicants! Beggars!
No sporting body knows what subvention they'll get next year. The Federation had owed a collective debt of US$10M. I asked [TTFF President] Mr [Oliver] Camps to write the Finance Minister and ask for a loan, interest-free, of $15M over ten years. That loan would have paid off all their debt and given them $5M to plan their programme.
I got FIFA to agree to pay back to the government $1.5M a year for ten years. They didn't even answer me! And then, in one of the cocktail circuits, one of the ministers says, "Jack Warner beg us for money but we going to squeeze Jack Warner!" Squeeze Jack Warner, Mr Pires?
Well, do that, if you can! That's pettiness! But don't squeeze the football. This country is today where Canada is not; where Honduras is not; where Jamaica is not: we are in the last six. When Greece went to the European championship earlier this year, nobody knew Greece would be champions. Not because they were the best team; but because they had the best plan.
I have been trying to get some top coaches to come to this country and I've been paying through my nose! The last one was a fella called [Rene] Simoes, and the government refused to help. No problem. They asked me to try to get somebody who is local.
I interviewed Lincoln Phillips in my office in New York. He had a passion to come back home after 30 years. I said to myself, why should Phillips coach American kids? I brought him back home.
Today is ten months I'm paying his salary and allowances. The Minister has promised and promised and promised. But it's the kind of contempt!
Q: Did you have the same contempt from the UNC administration?
A: On the contrary, under the UNC, we had the golden years for sport and moreso football. All those stadia for football and athletics were built during the UNC time. Tobago, in union with Trinidad for over 100 years, all they had was Shaw Park, under a Tobagonian prime minister, and under 30 years of PNM.
Under six years of UNC, they got the Dwight Yorke Stadium! I tell the guys in the TTFF, all of you are PNM, I have no problem with this, we're all friends, tell me: what has the PNM delivered for you? And they hung their heads in shame.
Q: Roger Boynes says no administration has done more for football than the current PNM one?
A: Mr Boynes has to say so, because Mr Boynes-and I like him, poor soul-I don't think he likes himself-because Mr Boynes is in a cabal there and is treated almost like a pariah and doesn't know it. Nobody respects him. Nobody takes him seriously.
I don't recall one initiative he has put forward that they've accepted. If you look only at the tangibles of the UNC-the swimming pools, the indoor facilities, the stadia-you'll see what I'm talking about. It took us 20 years to name the Hasley Crawford stadium. Who named it?
It took us 20 years to give Hasley Crawford a home. Who gave him? These are the simple things I'm talking about. At the end of the day, what is important is not Jack Warner, it's not of course Boynes; it's the people in this country.
We have to give them a sense of hope. The prime minister of Thailand, in a meeting with [FIFA President Sepp] Mr Blatter and me, said-he has elections in February-on his campaign, he is making a Ministry of Recruitment in sports and [going] to Africa and Asia to bring them to Thailand and give them citizenship to fast-track football coaching.
In two days [Jamaican sports minister] Portia Simpson gave citizenship to a fella called Jasonn Euell, who has never seen Jamaica-his great-grandmother from there-to play a match against the US on November 17, and he played!
Four months now I'm trying to get citizenship for a fella called [Jose Luis] Seabra who is living here for the past four and a half years, has a wife and child, and I can't even see the minister yet! I'm trying still to do it through Senator Roy Augustus.
You think it easy? You think it easy? And in some countries bigger than we are, you just have to drink a Budweiser and, if you're good, you get a passport. In this country, in football, a sport associated with Jack Warner, you eat the bread the devil knead!
When this country qualifies for Germany, it's not for me, it's not for you, it's for us! From the nutsman Jumbo and these guys, to the taxi-man, to the plane, the hotels, stores-everybody benefits. When this country does well, it lifts the morale of the young. [Jamaican prime minister] PJ Patterson told me crime is at its lowest in Jamaica when football is at its highest. He told me also that election date he called was determined by the success of the football team.
Q: You're connected to FIFA and the UNC, two connections of which you are proud, but they are two bodies widely perceived to be massively corrupt?
A: There is no empirical evidence I am aware of that FIFA is corrupt. But I have read books on it. I am now deputy chairman of the finance committee of FIFA. I oversee a budget of US$2 billion and I have never seen one iota of corruption.
Today, they have the best auditors possible. There is an internal audit committee comprised of the best bankers in the world. You don't throw stones at trees that don't bear fruit. FIFA is the most successful sporting organisation in the world and has to expect these kinds of criticism.
That is why we have as three of our slogans [sic], transparency, solidarity and fraternity; and we live that to the hilt. In the case of the UNC, some cases are before the court and those who are corrupt, if they are guilty, they must be charged.
But if individuals in the UNC are corrupt, it doesn't make the UNC corrupt. There are corrupt people also in the PNM. Look at what the UNC has done for the small man in six years.
Mr Pires, for six years, you never saw anybody worry about food prices being increased or taxes. Such simple things as the long lines at the Licensing Department were removed. Such simple things as a roundabout at the back of St Ann's was fixed. Roads and bridges from Mayaro to Port of Spain were repaired.
Q: Isn't CEPEP doing a lot for the poor man?
A: CEPEP for me should never have been invented. It has discouraged enterprise and initiative of the black man particularly. Instead of the black man having a Palm [pilot] or a laptop, he has a whacker and a paintbrush and believes in the quick fix.
CEPEP has also withdrawn much needed labour from other institutions because of the easy buck they get. You have a total disorientation of the labour market. I am now on the threshold of departure from this place at 61. What I have to fear?
One of the laughing-stocks to me was sending CEPEP workers to Grenada. You telling me Trinidadians could work harder than Grenadians? Particularly in Grenada? Why didn't we give them the tools to do the work? They were asking for food, tools, fax machines. They weren't asking for people! It was the farce of the year.
Q: On an election platform in the 2000 general election, I think, you made a statement about some Special Olympians who couldn't get airfares to the games. You said, "If they'd come to me, I would have called another FIFA country and said, I need to get airfares for these people. Help me and, down the road, you'll get my support on a vote."
A: I told them they should have come to me and I'd have helped, as I did in the past. I've given them 30 to 40 tickets on each occasion. I accumulate tonnes of [air] miles I can't use. I help the poor, people with heart problems and so on.
Q: My recollection is you basically said somebody would have done you a favour and you would have done a favour back for them down the line?
I don't remember the details but it's quite possible.
Q: If you did say, 'look, I belong to FIFA, I need to get these Olympians on planes, at some stage, you'll need a vote and I'll give you the vote', would that be corruption?
A: That's not corrupt! That's quid pro quo and that's how it works. Mr Blatter had elections in 2002 and I gave him 35 votes. I make no apology for telling you, in return, I wanted favours for my confederation.
His opponent was a Eurocentric guy who needed to help Europe at the detriment of my confederation. And therefore it had to be a quid pro quo. For me, that's not corruption. That's business!
Q: When you say, "I", do you mean Jack Warner or CONCACAF?
A: Some I is CONCACAF but some I is Jack Warner. As CONCACAF vice-president, I have no country. I take my hat off and then I have a country. So I talk in these terms and you have to be able to distinguish.
Q: Will we get to Germany?
A: Mr Pires, this morning, I didn't expect you to come here half past six. I know the media and the one thing they don't respect is time. When you came here at 6.25, I almost passed out. In fact, I began a meeting before you because I knew you weren't coming here before half past seven. I'm telling you this because you of course shocked me.
But I'll tell you something: I will shock this country and the world when Trinidad & Tobago qualifies for Germany, because nobody believes at this point in time. They didn't believe Hasely Crawford either. Until he qualified. Then they began to lionise him until they embarrassed him afterwards. This seven-day country of ours. The fact is, I will remember those who helped this country and I will remember those who spurned this country and particularly me, and I will tell you something: I will not forget! I asked the highest man in this country, President George Maxwell Richards, to a dinner and I called some top businessmen to it. The dinner cost me a little more than $200,000.
I made a passionate plea to them for help. Mr Pires, the President spoke for over 20 minutes for help. From that dinner six months ago, the help I got for football for the World Cup team is zero! Except for Blue Waters who give the team water and KFC who in cash and kind give $1M, I have had no help from any other local company. And some of them are beverage companies whose products are drunk by poor black people, all of whom play football and sport.
I say to them, "You have to decide whether you have a moral obligation to assist sport and culture." While I have my battle with the government, it has to be a collective effort: the government, business and the sporting fraternities. If the business people believe this is a government or a Jack Warner project, I have news for them.
Many times I'm tempted to call a meeting of our sportsmen and say, "For one year, leh we play no sport". If half of them don't play sport for one year, I tell you, you better build more jails! All those businessmen who feel they secure and who watching their bottom line every month and wouldn't give even one per cent, I have news for them: time will tell. We have companies here extracting our resources from the land-they have not given an iota! Why should businesses in Jamaica give Jamaican football $82M?
Q: You say you're surprised I was here at 6.30 but your assistant actually offered me a 4 a.m. appointment?
A: We work here until 11, 12 midnight. We go home and are back here at four. I drive a hard ship but I pay well also. To get things done in this country, one has to come early. You think I could let them come here at 7 a.m. in that traffic [and] when they reach here, they're neurotic? No letter stays on my desk for more than 24 hours. I answer 500 e-mails per day. For me, there's no substitute for hard work. When I'm not here, Pat [Modeste] will come in for 5 a.m.
Slacker!
Because, wherever I am, it's 5 p.m. and I need information. I have a phone that connects to the telephone [system] in every country. I'm accessible and she knows what time she has to be here. I don't ask them to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Whether it is to wash the wares in the kitchen, sweep the floor, put the garbage out, we do it together!
I have my office in Guatemala City with 11 workers; I go there once a month. My head office is in New York, Trump Tower, the entire 17th floor is mine for the past 14 years. I have 16 people there. I have an office in Zurich where I go every month. I have offices in the Centre of Excellence; and I have businesses. I have to be on the ball. It's not meant to be a boast. All it says is, if you want to be successful, you cannot fear hard work.
Q: Why won't business get behind the football team?
A: It's simple. Or it might be simplistic. Because of what Jack Warner stands for; his political affiliation is not good. [UNC business people] don't give because they're 'fraid.
They used to for six years you know. If you'd come to football in those days, you'd see how the whole football fraternity had even changed! A mixture of Indians and Chinese, the whole rainbow nation. Now it's gone back to what it was before. That cannot be right. We have to use sport as a unifying factor.
Q: If business leaders did come around to football, would you embrace them?
A: Sure. But I want to tell you, I wouldn't be here.
Q: You don't think they will fall in for this campaign?
A: They will fall in after the team qualifies. And I'll tell you something: I waiting for them. I waiting for them!
You don't think they might read this interview and say, "We'll show Jack! We'll put up big bucks!"
If it does happen, BC, I'm glad. But I won't lie prostrate or on bended knees asking them for help any more. I will stand on my two feet and tell them they have a moral obligation. They can't talk about accountability in football.
[This week] we produced our accounts for the last ten months. In two months, they will go to KPMG for audit. Many corporate [entities] can't boast about that. You think powerboat racing have problems?
You think golf has problems? Horse racing? I get an invitation to go to races on the 27th. If you see sponsors! That's a sport? But football and cricket have problems because they're for the grassroots! And that's my problem! And that's my problem! I'm bitter!