Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/578491
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL FIFA ban Jack Warner for life from 'all football-related activity' Trinidadian Jack Warner, once one of the most powerful men in world football, has been banned from all football-related activities for life, the ethics committee of the global governing body FIFA said on Tuesday WARNER, 72, was one of 14 foot- ball officials and sports marketing executives indicted in the United States on May 27 on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges involving more than $150 million in payments. In the latest twist in the corrup- tion scandal, Swiss authorities said last week they were investigating FIFA President Sepp Blatter on sus- picion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. The FIFA ethics committee said Warner was investigated following an inquiry into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The tournaments were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively in December 2010 by the FIFA execu- tive committee, of which Warner was a member. Warner was found to have com- mitted "many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF," the committee said. "In his positions as a football offi- cial, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money- making schemes," it said. Warner was found guilty of vio- lating ethics code articles on gen- eral rules of conduct, loyalty, duty of disclosure, conflicts of interest, the offering and acceptance of gifts and of failing to collaborate with the ethics committee. Warner is the former president of CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, a post he held from 1990 to 2011. He sat on FIFA's all-powerful execu- tive committee for 28 years. He is currently in his native Trinidad and Tobago, where he is fighting extradition to the United States. In 2006, FIFA's executive com- mittee expressed disapproval at Warner's conduct after following the alleged resale of World Cup tickets and said he should be more "prudent" in the future. Warner resigned from his posts when he was placed under investi- gation by the ethics committee in 2011 over a cash-for-votes scandal in the run-up to that year's FIFA presidential election. The same scandal also led to a life ban for Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, who had planned to stand against Blatter. The case against Warner was subsequently dropped by the ethics committee as he was no longer involved in football. Former FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner walks after leaving the Magistrate's Court in Port-of-Spain Rooney tells of Ferguson clashes in revealing TV programme ENGLAND captain Wayne Rooney has opened up about his clashes with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, how having chil- dren calmed him down and why he should not have gone to the 2006 World Cup for a new BBC television film. Rooney denies that he put in a transfer request just before Fergu- son retired in May 2013 but admits that he broached the possibility of leaving the club he had joined from Everton nine years earlier. "I went in to see him and just said, 'If you are not going to play me, it might be better for me to move on'," Rooney said. "Then, all of a sudden, it was all over the press that I had put a trans- fer request in, which I never did." Three years earlier Rooney did re- quest a transfer and questioned the club's ambition. "Wayne let himself down," former team-mate Gary Neville told the programme of that incident. "Me and Ryan Giggs had a word and he apologised the next day." Talking about his international career, the current England cap- tain admits that he should not have agreed to go to the 2006 World Cup under Sven Goran Eriksson after breaking his foot. "It was touch-and-go as to wheth- er I would be fit," he said. "And then Sven put me in the squad. "Looking back, I probably would have sat out the World Cup. It was a big ask to get fit after six weeks out. I was never going to have that match sharpness." His performances at two World Cups have been one of the disap- pointments of Rooney's career, which he suggests may stem from "putting too much pressure on my- self". Insights into his personal life include an admission that "hav- ing children has calmed me down a bit" and that he was determined those children should be born in his native Liverpool rather than Manchester. Other contributors to the hour- long programme include Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ste- ven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Ryan Giggs. It is presented by Gary Lineker, whose 48 goals for England have been beaten only by Bobby Charl- ton's 49 and now Rooney's 50. Rooney hopes to add to that total when England, who have already qualified for Euro 2016, play their remaining group matches shortly, against Estonia and Lithuania. Wayne Rooney and former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson