FIFA bans Jack Warner from football for life

Jack Warner, the former vice-president of FIFA and president of the Caribbean football federation, has been banned from all football-related activity for life, FIFA's ethics committee confirmed on Tuesday.

The 72-year old "was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF," said the ethics committee statement.

Warner had been allowed to resign with "presumption of innocence maintained" after over 30 years of service in 2011, when FIFA closed its ethics committee procedures against him. This came after Warner had been implicated in a bribery scandal surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.

Football's world governing body added that Warner was involved in the "offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments."

One of the alleged transactions on which FIFA President Sepp Blatter was indicted last week was a deal with Warner supposedly underselling television rights to the Trinidadian, who is now a member of parliament.

apc/msh (AP, Reuters)