Jack Warner’s humiliating end

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - After Friday’s revelations at Fifa, enumerated in a damning report prepared by Sir David Simmons and released to the public, it was just a matter of time before the People’s Partnership Government and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar would have had to make a decision about Jack Warner. The report, which listed many troubling findings about Mr Warner’s role in Concacaf during his time as its president, demands a full response from the former football boss. In the circumstances, Mr Warner who up until Sunday was serving as the Minister of National Security, did the honourable thing in offering his resignation to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, Mr Warner completed his abdication of high-level political power, resigning as the chairman of the United National Congress (UNC). It was a humiliating end to the battle waged by Mr Warner ever since he was elected to political office by a staggering 12,000 votes in his constituency of Chaguanas West. The former Fifa vice-president took up his role in Cabinet amid a clamour of concerns about the allegations that were being made about him in 2010, claims that were put to temporary rest by his resignation from the world football body and the end of investigations by Fifa’s Ethics Committee. But Mr Warner’s influence and impact ranged well beyond the hush that fell over the well-appointed halls of Fifa after the Bin Hammam incident came to a shambling end.