British journalist Andrew Jennings is an investigative reporter, writer and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his work on corruption in sports organisations and the politics of international sports, particularly within FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.
In 2006 Jennings investigated several allegations of bribery within FIFA for BBC’s Panorama, including million dollar bribes to secure marketing rights for company ISL along with vote-buying (to secure the position of FIFA president Sepp Blatter), bribery and graft attributed to CONCACAF president Jack Warner. Jennings told Olukayode Thomas in Johannesburg, that Warner’s decision not to pay the players is like the rich robbing the poor.
2006 FIFA World Cup qualification bonus for Trinidad and Tobago players.
FIFA’s position is that they are not prepared to do anything, because I interviewed Shaka Hislop for a BBC Television Film a couple years ago in Trinidad and he told me they had written to FIFA, but they said ‘no, it’s a domestic matter, we would refer you back to the Trinidad Federation’ controlled of course by Warner. That is disgraceful. FIFA has failed the players; FIFA is not prepared to support the players against one of its own.
Picture of FIFA in Africa as a decent organisation
Sepp Blatter needs votes; it’s all about his survival. It is like politicians going towards an election, they try to make happy as many constituents as possible by directing public works to them. All these are done by politicians and we see it in every country.
Blatter, to survive in power, has to keep the two most important regional confederations happy, that is UEFA and CAF, because there is a lot of vote in Africa and they’ve got be kept very happy so if you give them three tournaments in the space of 12 months then there is going to be a lot of jobs for the boys, lots of money floating around, lots of nice hotels and lots of expenses to be claimed. Isn’t Blatter a nice fellow?
So the whole thing is a deceit?
It is the fault of many sports reporters and editors because they don’t ask the question. FIFA is a big corrupt conspiracy, this was established in courts. It’s not a journalist saying it; it’s a Swiss court.
You should also know this, that there is a continuing criminal investigation in Switzerland into FIFA and Blatter.
Attacking Warner because he is black
That is rather desperately pathetic, isn’t it? I am very friendly with many black people, it just has to be disregarded and I don’t even get angry with Warner. If it was somebody else that said I was a racist, I would be concerned if I had made a mistake somewhere, but of course I know I have not but if it’s coming from Warner again it is a diversion.
Look back to 2005 when Trinidad and Tobago was at the World Cup in Germany 2006. That team is, with one exception, black. There was one white man. He was born in Trinidad and so he qualifies as all of the rest. 23 out of the 24-man squad were black men as you might expect from Trinidad.
You might ask Warner why he refuses to pay those men their money. I campaign for those men, and I really don’t want to go ahead making a point that I am a white man campaigning for those black men because it is irrelevant. I am a journalist who sees some footballers who have been duped.
Why the players deserve their allowances
I feel very bad about it because in the Trinidad squad, there were very few highly paid players in England. The goal keeper, Shaka Hislop, has been earning top money in Newcastle and other Premier League teams.
But Shaka, though rich, shouldn’t be robbed. Most of that squad were journeymen footballers playing in the lower leagues around Europe. They did so well to get their team to the last 32 and they represented their country with great dignity and fans may remember when Trinidad played England in Germany. Peter Crouch was going after the ball when Brent Sancho grabbed his dreadlocks and pulled him down, that was cheating, but Sanchi didn’t punch him on the nose, he took it.
It was the dignity as a good player since the referee didn’t see it; they represented their country beautifully and they are entitled at the end of their careers to that money contractually and morally because they are not going to make a lot of money once their legs go.
Manipulating the law
The case has been to arbitration, he lost out at the arbitration but he still refuses to pay. The players have taken him to court in Trinidad, he is trying to change the legal title of the Trinidad federation.
This is called stealing. I would suggest to you that the next time that Warner tries to come to Nigeria, in the interest of all black footballers in the world, you don’t give him a visa, throw the man out of the country.