Warner Wants To End Uk’s Fifa ‘privileges’
Jack Warner, the influential FIFA vice-president, has declared his intent to end
the ‘special privileges’ that he believes the UK football nations have with
regard to voting rights within the global governing body.
For the past 60 years, the UK’s comprising nations have enjoyed the right to
automatically nominate their own FIFA vice-president while also holding voting
rights on the International FA Board, the global game’s rule-making body.
The position of UK representative on FIFA’s vice-presidency panel has been
filled by Scottish lawyer David Will for the past 17 years but his impending
retirement has left the door opened for Warner’s agenda.
Warner said: ‘It does not make any sense, it should be abolished because it
is a football anachronism. If I can get support I will bring it up at the FIFA
Congress and I will fight to have it abolished. This position should be elected
by the UEFA countries. You should not be able to play in the UEFA competitions
and then have your own elections outside UEFA. You cannot be half-pregnant.
Either you are pregnant or not pregnant.’
Will’s successor as FIFA vice-president is to be elected on Monday and each
home association has put forward their candidate, although it looks certain to
come down to a straight contest between FA chairman Geoff Thompson and Irish FA
president Jim Boyce. The election also involves Scottish FA president John
McBeth and his Welsh counterpart Peter Rees.
While Warner is unable to change the structure for this voting period, he is
keen that this vice-presidency vote be the last four-year period awarded
automatically to the UK.
He added: ‘Whoever gets elected now can of course stay in the post and serve
for four years, but after that the situation must change because it is not
right. It has nothing to do with any individual personalities. It’s the reality
of the situation.’
Trinidanian Warner is the president of the CONCACAF federation which
represents the footballing countries from north and central America and the
Caribbean.
