Jack Warner, Unethical or Savvy?

Jack Warner is the President of Concacaf, Vice-President of FIFA, and one of the sketchiest businessmen you could encounter.  His questionable ethics when it pertains to advancing his own self-interest and that of Trinidad & Tobago are legendary.  

As a proud supporter of the Yanks, I get scared every time Jack Warner is influential in any big decision.  His long known favoritism to the little island nations of the Caribbean is a major concern for US fans.  FIFA elects its presidents with each country receiving one vote.  Similarly, each continental federation elects its president in the same manner.  Warner panders to the numerous island nations, and then ignores nations like Mexico and the US without much worry.  Sepp Blatter is also dependent on Warner.  Blatter uses Warner to rally all of the Island nations to vote for him when FIFA presidential elections come around.  The Caribbean makes up a significant portion of the votes, and Blatter would not be elected without them.  So what is so egregious about this?  He is operating inside the rules.  The far less publicized story is that Warner uses the leverage he has with Blatter to get away with scandals and corruption.  Warner has been involved in multiple scandals, and has never received the proper punishment from FIFA. 

            Warner is a smart guy, but he tried to skirt the law too many times.  Warner’s scandals all coincidentally have to do with Trinidad & Tobago, his home country.  Trinidad & Tobago played a friendly against Scotland at Easter Road in 2004.  Warner attended the game which is no cause for concern, but what he did after that is concerning.  He went to John McBeth, the president of the SFA and asked for the proceeds of the game to be made out to him personally, not the FF of T&T.  McBeth responded appropriately.  ”No, we don’t do that” he said, but Warner also approached other members of the SFA to have the proceeds made out to him directly.  Warner was completely out of line, but no investigation  ensued from FIFA.

There is also the very publicized World Cup ticket scandal, but there is a less publicized Bonus scandal with the T&T players.  After the World Cup, which saw T&T make an admirable showing, there were bonuses due to the players.  Warner reported that the FA had collected TT $18.25 million, and spent TT $17.9 million.  Warner promised the players half of the difference, and the players could not believe the FF had profited so little from going to The World Cup.  13 members of the team retired from international football in protest, until their rightful bonus was given to them.  It was later revealed that the FF had amassed more than TT $173 million.  The players were rightfully suspicious.

            Warner also damaged the possibility of the US hosting the World Cup (something I am not happy about).  Warner said that he would  ”battle to bring…the tournament to his region”, as he should.  Warner controls 3 of the 24 votes when deciding where to host the World Cup, making him very powerful on this matter.  He said in that same interview that he would favor Italy, or Spain if the World Cup were to go to Europe.  He since changed those statements in hopes of securing a friendly against England for T&T.  After he secured a useless friendly in T&T, he changed his mind about England hosting the World Cup.  Warner said “The time has come” for England to host a World Cup.  It was a big blow for the US’s bid to host in 2018.  If your own regional president does not back you, the whole bid could be jeopardized.

            What ever you may think of Warner, he was smart enough to get himself in a position where he cannot be reprimanded for his misconduct.  

What do you guys think about Warner?  Is he as unethical as the evidence points to?  You get to decide for your self.   

Sources: BBC Sport, Sunday Herald, BBC Sport International, Gaurdian 

Evening news

I've hit it big.  Two articles for Soccerlens and I'm all over google.  Here is my most recent article on why the US will beat England.  

In other news, Michael Owen is most likely out for the two upcoming friendlies for England with a virus.  He was on the 31 man roster, but may have to withdraw his name.  Don't fret English fans, you have a wealth of attacking options and there are plenty of capable replacements.

Alex Ferguson is mad at Real Madrid for the dogged chase after Cristiano Ronaldo.  The Scotsman said, Real Madrid have no moral issues at all."  Real have been praising the Portuguese winger highly in hopes to lure him to the club.

Carlos Bocanegra was released today by Fulham.  He fell in the order at Fulham to the point where he was usually an unused substitute.  He is widely rumored to be moving to either PSV Eindhoven, or Osasuna.  Carlos will be available for the England friendly upcoming on the May 28th. 

My take on the US Roster

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Bob Bradley recently announced a squad of 33 players to compete in the 3 upcoming friendly's against England, Spain, and Argentina.  He will be selecting a squad of 22 players for each game from that squad of 33.  Sounds like a reasonable idea right, it is if your playing teams like Anguilla or Suriname where the lineup picked doesn't matter, you still will beat them.  We're not playing the worst teams in the world here, we're playing the cream of the crop.  I know some of you might say "England they didn't make Euro 2008, they're not that good after all." but think again.  They are ranked 11th in the world, and sandwiched in between The Netherlands, and Romania, two very good, very accomplished teams.  Bob Bradley will select 22 players for each game, but he will need to pick the best or we won't have a shot at winning.  So maybe he varies his selections a bit and he picks a total of 26 players; then we won't get to see some of the players who have played themselves on to the team with good MLS seasons, like Robbie Rogers, or Kenny Cooper.  Anyhow, In the wake of Bob picking a 33 man roster, I got around to thinking, what players I would pick for each of the games.  I believe I have the answers and they are as follows:

England Lineup

  Subs: Guzan, Califf, Spector, Adu, Lewis, Jaqua, Wolff

---------Dempsey-------Johnson------------

Beasley----------------------------Donovan

------------Bradley---Clark------------------

Pearce--------------------------Cherundolo

---------Bocanegra---Onyewu-------------

-----------------Howard---------------------- 

Spain Lineup

       Subs: Guzan, Demerit, Beasley, Johnson, Califf, Cherundolo, Wolff

--------------Dempsey--Jaqua--------------

Adu--------------------------------Donovan

------------Feilhaber--Bradley-------------

Pearce-------------------------------Spector

--------------Orozco--Onyewu------------

------------------Howard--------------------

Argentina Lineup

     Subs: Guzan, Spector, Orozco, Adu, Edu, Ching, Cooper

------------Dempsey Altidore-------------

Beasley--------------------------Donovan

---------------Clark---Bradley-------------

Pearce------------------------Cherundolo

------------Onyewu--Bocanegra---------

-----------------Howard--------------------

These are the lineups I would use for the game.  Bradley however, might not use Beasley because he's coming off an injury, additionally Clark and Edu, might not travel to Europe due to scheduling conflicts. Guzan is the second choice keeper but might not go to Europe because he would miss game with Chivas USA.  MLS players will be sparce in Europe, but there will be more involved in the game against New York.

Chelsea's first signing, England names squad for US friendly

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Chelsea have signed Jose Boswinga, the Porto right back for a nice sum of 16.2 million pounds.  He will presumably slide into the right back position where Essien has been playing for most of the year.  A good signing for Chelsea; they were able to beat out Manchester United for the signature of Boswinga and he will be Avram Grant's second signing since joining the club last fall.  This move will hopefully give Grant, or whoever the next manager of Chelsea is the chance to have 3 world class central midfielders who are interchangeable.  If Lampard does stay (that's in question) they will have three world class combinations in the center.  Lampard with Essien, Lampard with Ballack, and Ballack with Essien.  I like this move a lot and I hope Chelsea will dip a little deeper in the transfer window for a striker, a left winger, and some cover for the back line.  All in all, a good day for Chelsea.

In other news, Fabio Capello has named a 31 man squad for the friendlies against the USA and Trinidad and Tobago.  Capello selected a full strenghth squad, but his surprise inclusions were U-21's Tom Huddlestone of Tottenham, and Joe Hart of Manchester City.  The USA has yet to release a squad but should have one in the next week.