Former Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, has said he is ready to divulge all he knows concerning corruption at the world football governing body.
Mr Warner, speaking in a short-tempered TV address, vows to release an “avalanche” of secret, and claims he could prove a dot between Fifa officials and the general elections in his home nation Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.
The 72-year-old, who said he fears for his life, is one of 14 persons indicted by a U.S. corruption investigation.
This comes hours after another ex-senior Fifa official, Chuck Blazer, admitted to accepting bribe to a court in New York.
The former Fifa Executive Committee (ExCo) member (1996-2013) and CONCACAF General Secretary (1990-2011) in a publicised guilty plea to a ten-count charge from 2013, as part of a wide ranging US criminal case that has shocked the football world, had testified that he and other “co-conspirators agreed to commit at least two acts of racketeering activities.”
All 14th charged people have allegedly accepted bribes and kickbacks estimated at over $150m (£97m) dating back to 1991, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Seven of that 14 were high ranking officials arrested in a dawn raid in Zurich, Switzerland, 48 hours prior to the 65th Fifa Congress last week. Blazer is among four others who have already been charged.
Warner resigned from all football related activities in 2011 amid bribery allegations and later quit his position as Trinidad and Tobago security minister because of a fraud probe.
“I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country,” Warner, said in a TV address themed: “The Gloves are Off.”
He added while speaking to his supporters at a rally later on Wednesday: “Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming. The die is cast.
“There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall.”
Warner said he had given his lawyers documents outlining details of financial dealings with Fifa, it’s funding, himself and the 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago.
He said the cache also included transactions involving Fifa president Sepp Blater, who was forced to confirm his resignation in the heat of the biggest scandal in world football’s history.
Warner said: “Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do.”
Blazer, speaking at a U.S. Eastern District Courthouse, said he and other Fifa ExCo’s accepted bribes between 2004 to 2011 for votes over the 1998 and 2010 World Cup tournaments hosted by France and South Africa respectively.
The 40-page document was kept secret by the U.S. and only made public last night.
South Africa had earlier on Wednesday denied paying $10m bribe for the hosting rights of the 2010 tournament.
Blazer, who is reportedly struggling with colon cancer, also admitted that a co-conspirator received a bribe in Morocco for its bid for the 1998 showpiece, which eventually went to France, and that he and others took bribes over the broadcast and other rights for the COCACAF Gold Cup- an equivalent of the Africa Cup of Nations for the Confederation of North Central American and Caribbean Association Football.
Blazer said: “Among other things, I agreed with others in or around 1992 to facilitate the acceptance of a bribe in conjunction with the selection of the 1998 World Cup host nation.
“Beginning in or about 1993 and through the early 2000s, I and others agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the broadcast and other rights to the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2003 Gold Cups.
“Beginning in or around 2004 and through 2011, I and others on the executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with selecting South Africa as the 2010 World Cup host.”
This exposure is ridiculous to FIFA and embarrassing to the world.