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Indicted former FIFA VP actually cited an Onion article to defend himself
(Jack Warner/Facebook) Warner with a printed copy of the Onion's story.
Jack Warner, FIFA's former vice president, was released from a jail in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday.
Warner turned himself in to authorities after US officials leveled a variety of accusations at him related to his 30-year tenure at the international soccer governing body.
The charges include wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, and racketeering conspiracy.
The allegations are part of an alleged $150 million FIFA bribery scheme.
Nevertheless, Warner remains undaunted. And he initially used a satirical article from The Onion to back up his argument.
In a video posted on his official Facebook page on Sunday, Warner said he knew the true reason US law had descended on the sports organization:
"I think it is pathetic and sad for me to be accused of deals in FIFA, which I am not guilty of," Warner said. "How do you justify, for example, that after all these, these accusations that the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has been elected for a fifth consecutive term."
Warner then asked why FIFA president Sepp Blatter wasn't in trouble if the organization was so corrupt.
"If FIFA is so bad, why is it the USA wants to keep the FIFA World Cup?" he added. "Why is it they began games on May 27th? May 27th, two days before FIFA elections. Why is it the US authorities sought to embarrass FIFA in Zurich? Something has to be wrong."
Indeed, something has to be wrong.
And it is that Warner is referring to an Onion report that FIFA announced a special summer 2015 World Cup to be held in the US.
(The Onion)
Warner then cites the report as proof of a US conspiracy to humble FIFA.
"I made the point to you over and over that all these things have stemmed from the failed US bid to host the World Cup," Warner said. "I said before [and] I say again: The US applied to host the World Cup in 2022 and they lost the bid to Qatar — a small country, an Arabic country, a Muslim country.
"I can understand the US embarrassment at a small country as Qatar, with less than 30,000 people … citizens ... could have been able to overcome them this way. I could understand their pain but no one gives them the right to do what they are doing.
"I said before [and] I say again: No one country has any divine right to host the World Cup."
Qatar has a population of about 2.1 million, about 260,000 of which are citizens (while the rest are expatriates).
A report from The Wall Street Journal on Saturday further details Warner's role in FIFA's alleged corruption.
According to the indictment filed by the US, Warner was closely involved in a vote-buying scheme ahead of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa. US authorities allege that $10 million was wired from accounts controlled by FIFA to ones in the control of Warner.
Despite the scale of the charges against him, Warner believes that he, like other figures throughout history, will ultimately be vindicated.
Addressing supporters in Trinidad after his release, he declared, "Nelson Mandela made jail. Gandhi made jail. Castro made jail. So who's Jack Warner?"
Check out the video below:
(h/t Robert Mackey)
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