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Valcke backs Blazer - But for how much longer?
Mr Mathier’s performance over the years has not made me confident about his honesty. (See his secret kangaroo court in FOUL! – starting page 313) He clearly couldn’t give a damn about some judge he’s never heard of on a faraway Caribbean island.
We must wait until September 26 to see what Judge Isaacs thinks of the gross contempt of his court by Blazer and his gang and the brigands of Zurich. If he is sufficiently unhappy he has the power to summon the gang to the Bahamas to apologise and be punished. He has the power to size assets; the Judge could begin with Blazer’s $3 million luxury apartments at the Reef development on nearby Paradise Island.
Let’s hope Judge Isaacs summons the miscreants before the bench. If Blatter won’t attend, the Bahamas police have a number for Interpol. The sight of Blatter, Valcke, Blazer and some officials manacled in a prison bus bound for Fox Hill jail where many inmates have to sleep on the concrete floor would cheer millions. Judge Isaacs could strike down one of the most pernicious weapons in Blatter’s armoury.
America’s spineless servility
It is depressing that grass roots football in the Concacaf region meekly allows Blazer and his boys to behave as they do. America’s football president Sunil Gulati, an economics professor at Columbia U, continues his country’s tradition of spineless servility to Blazer and Blatter. (His predecessor Robert Contiguglia announced in 2002, ‘Blatter is an icon of humanitarianism.’) Gulati is similarly silent on Fifa scams and has not publically expressed any opinion on Blazer’s offshore bank accounts or his million of dollars in confidential payments from football.
Could Professor Gulati’s silence be because he fears sinking back into obscurity next year when his term ends at the US soccer federation? The Concacaf rumour mill has it that Blazer promises he can step into Warner’s shoes and instantly become a well-rewarded Fifa vice-president.
Another aspirant to Concacaf’s presidency and guaranteed well-padded seat at Fifa’s top table is Jamaica’s Horace Burrell. He was quick to offer himself - but he has a problem. Back at the Fifa congress in Zurich in 1996 Jack Warner discovered his Caribbean bloc was a vote short. Haiti’s representative, a noble fellow named Dr Jean-Marie Kyss, had been prevented by government thugs from leaving the island.
Volunteered his girlfriend
Despite Fifa’s ban on proxy voting Mr Burrell (he prefers to be called ‘Capn’ from his period in the Jamaican military a very long time ago) immediately volunteered the services of his girlfriend, Ms Vincy Jalal who happened to be along for the shopping. Somebody gave her accreditation and she sat in the conference, voted when instructed and her name was included in the conference report as Haiti’s delegate. (Full story in FOUL! – pages 67 and 315) This episode may disqualify ‘Capn’ Burrell from any role in the soon-to-be reformed Fifa we are promised.
Indeed there may be problems finding any alternatives to Mr Austin. Chuck Blazer has been in Panama trying to rally support from the seven central American national associations in Concacaf. One official from Honduras aspiring to take Warner’s seat at Fifa has an insurmountable problem. Concacaf’s HQ is in New York – and when this chap last tried to enter the USA through Miami he was put on the next plane home. Immigration officials weren’t happy about corruption allegations against him in central America.
Another aspiring Concacaf leader, Mr Patrick John from Dominica, is similarly banned and can’t travel to Concacaf HQ. That’s to do with his 12-year jail sentence back home for leading an armed revolt, backed by the Ku Klux Klan and Toronto Mafia boss ‘Chuckles’ Yanover, to overthrow the government of Dominica and set up a whacky world of drug-smuggling, brothels and money laundering. Really. It was in 1981.
With friends like this and his rising tide of personal scandal, world football will be wondering if Chuck Blazer is the kind of man they really need on Fifa’s executive committee.
Next page – The Chuck Blazer letters