One of my most vivid memories of Andrew Jennings came on our second meeting, after a media conference at the Trinidad Hilton in the build-up to the 2001 Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago. It was an elegant event, attended by then Fifa president Sepp Blatter, with every …
Read More »Omertà (part fifteen): Havelange kicked out of the Olympics
The IOC did what FIFA would not December 8, 2011, IOC HQ, Vidy: I was shocked. I had not seen President Jacques Rogge for two years and this late afternoon in Lausanne, as he settled in his chair at the press conference, he looked like a cadaver and spoke like …
Read More »Snitches get smooches: John Oliver mauls Jack… with kindness
HBO’s British comic John Oliver tonight announced himself to Trinidad and Tobago with a performance that did for comedy what Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr did for boxing. And by that Mr Live Wire means Oliver tossed some elegant jabs, scarcely touched his opponent and yet, somehow, managed to preserve his …
Read More »Omertà (part thirteen): How the FIFA crooks got away with it
In secret, they confess… Zug, September 21, 2009: FIFA President Sepp Blatter swallowed his pride and travelled in his chauffeured black Mercedes from his luxurious office high above Zurich to the austere lakeside office in Zug of the Chief Prosecutor, Christian Aebi. Blatter’s driver was probably wise enough not to …
Read More »Blatter’s presidential rival, Mayne-Nicholls, faces possible FIFA suspension
ONE OF FIFA’s top corruption investigators is claiming that the inspection report on countries bidding to host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 can no longer be trusted, calling into question the votes that gave the tournament to Russia and Qatar. How come? A Zurich lawyer, hand-picked by Sepp …
Read More »Omertà (part twelve): Jean-Marie Weber Must Not be Sacked!
Why Do Blatter and Havelange need him? Tuesday March 11, 2008, Zug: Here they come, smartly dressed in their businessman suits, pretending it’s an ordinary day at the office, walking quickly past the pack of jackals with their TV cameras and notebooks blocking the glass and brick canyon leading to …
Read More »When The Political Tongue Slips
Earl Best recalls some occasions when the public language was not, ahm, parliamentary… Three years ago, Benjai’s monster hit “Trini” mash up the whole place. “And they like to hear Trini talk, talk, talk, talk, talk…,” he told us. There wasn’t one dissenting voice. That “they” includes me because, in …
Read More »Omertà (Part Three): Havelange’s Golden Briefcase
Chapter 3: Havelange’s Golden Briefcase: Why is it so heavy when he leaves Zurich? ZURICH AIRPORT, anytime, 1974-1998. The easy thing for Rudi the chauffeur was meeting and greeting the FIFA President when his plane arrived from Paris. Havelange loved to stay a day or more in Paris on his …
Read More »Omertà: Sepp Blatter’s FIFA Organised Crime Family (Part 2)
Chapter 2 Best of Friends: The Crime Boss and the Boss of World Football (By Carolina Mazzi) IT IS RIO’S WEDDING of the year. The father of the bride is Brazil’s biggest gangster, racketeer and, they say, murderer of 50 rivals. He stays out of jail by paying off the …
Read More »Omertà: Sepp Blatter’s FIFA Organised Crime Family (Part I)
“Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios…” John Prine, Sam Stone, 1971 As this book is completed, we wait to see if the FBI will indict leading members of Blatter’s FIFA Family. The investigations by an FBI Organised Crime Squad, based in Federal Plaza, New York, began in …
Read More »Trick or tweet: The truth behind Warner’s Haitian aid lawsuit (Part two)
Independent Liberal Party (ILP) interim leader and ex-FIFA vice president Jack Warner sued me for substantial damages, a retraction and public apology as well as legal costs but he ended up offering an apology instead, via a legal document lodged in the High Court. Here is second and final part …
Read More »Ban FIFA from the World Cup: Jennings salutes Brazilian protestors
To my dear friends in Sao Paulo who I met last year at the meeting of the World Cup protest committees at the Casa Fora do Eixo. And also the journalists and students at the Mediaon conference earlier in the week. Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil’s famous architect and socialist) would have …
Read More »