Warner escapes probe as he quits

London: Jack Warner the arch rogue at the centre of Fifa's corruption scandal, has resigned from all his positions in international football and so will escape further investigation into allegations of bribery.

Warner is likely to soon be followed out of the door by Asian football chief Mohamad Bin Hammam, the other executive committee member under a bribery investigation by Fifa, who otherwise faces being suspended from football activity for life.

Warner, 68, the longest-serving member of the tarnished ExCo, stood down with immediate effect after nearly 30 years riddled with allegations of skulduggery at home and abroad. He had been under fierce pressure from his political opponents in Trinidad.

They were making capital out of Warner being suspended along with Bin Hammam and two other Caribbean football officials pending the results of the inquiry. The investigation, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, is focusing on the Caribbean Football Union summit where it is alleged payments of $40,000 (Dh146,890) were offered to the 25 members.

Warner, who was being investigated by Fifa's ethics committee, has jumped before he was pushed. Having survived all of the other accusations of wrongdoing, he realised the weight of evidence against him meant the game was up if he wanted to remain Minister of Works and Transport and chairman of the United National Congress, the major party in the Trinidad & Tobago coalition government. He went with a familiar rant, saying he had ‘lost the enthusiasm to continue' in football because Fifa officials had ‘sought to undermine me in ways that are unimaginable'.

As a result of his decision which Fifa president Sepp Blatter will seize on as evidence that he is living up to his promise to cleanse world football Fifa said the ethics committee procedures against Warner ‘have been closed and the presumption of innocence is maintained'.

A statement said: "Fifa regret the turn of events that have led to Warner's decision. His resignation has been accepted and his achievements for Caribbean football in particular and the Concacaf confederation are acknowledged and appreciated."

And the fact Warner reaffirmed his promise to co-operate with the ongoing inquiry means there is no way Bin Hammam can survive on the ExCo.

Call for clean-up

Asian football president Mohammad Bin Hammam should follow Fifa vice-chief Jack Warner and quit the sport after both were suspended over bribery claims, a former top official said Tuesday.

Peter Velappan, the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) general secretary for 30 years until 2007, said not only Bin Hammam, but Fifa's entire executive committee should resign as the sport seeks to clean up its image.

"I would suggest in the interests of Fifa and global football the entire Fifa exco (executive committee) must resign and open up a new chapter for football for the future," Velappan told AFP in Singapore.

"In the same way, for the future of Asian football, Bin Hammam should resign."

— Daily Mail & AFP