He was once a vice president of soccer's world governing body, but now Jack Warner, who's under an indictment for corruption charges, has been banned from the sport for life. FIFA announced the move Tuesday, citing repeated misconduct by Warner.
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Warner was among 14 executives who were indicted on a range of corruption charges in May. The former head of CONCACAF, which is a continental federation based in the U.S., Warner is accused of taking bribes as part of the bidding process to determine the hosts of World Cup tournaments in 2018 and 2022.
From FIFA's Ethics Committee:
"Mr Warner was found to have committed 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. In his positions as a football official, 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."
Since his indictment, Warner has made headlines both for saying he "will no longer keep secrets" for others within FIFA — and for citing an article in The Onion as a factual account, when he issued a video defending himself this summer.
As the Two-Way reported in June:
"If the FIFA is so bad, why is it the U.S.A. wants to keep the FIFA World Cup?" he asks in the video, referring to The Onion article headlined: "FIFA Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup In The United States: Global Soccer Tournament To Kick Off In America Later This Afternoon."
Also on Tuesday, Switzerland has reportedly agreed to extradite Eduardo Li, the former president of Costa Rica's soccer federation, to the U.S. Li was among the indicted executives who were arrested by Swiss authorities earlier this year.
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