Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner (left) and FIFA boss Joseph Blatter.

Agencies/Berlin

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner said yesterday that FIFA boss Joseph Blatter has nothing to fear from revelations he previously promised to make regarding his time at the world football governing body.
“I worked with Blatter for 30 years,” Warner was quoted as saying to local and international media by the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian.
“I know a thing called loyalty and under any conditions or tribulations I may suffer, I know what is loyalty and therefore when a fella is down or seems to be down, I will not push him down. When he is down I will give a helping hand.”
Warner’s comments suggest he is rowing back on a promise made two weeks ago to release “an avalanche of revelations” about the financial affairs of FIFA and Blatter’s knowledge of what went on in the under-fire organisation.
“There are people in this country who like to demonise people,” he was quoted in the Guardian. “I am not like that, therefore do not expect me to tell anybody anything about FIFA or Blatter.
Warner is one of 14 leading football officials world-wide being investigated by the United States Department of Justice. A former president of the football confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), he has denied allegations of corruption.
Warner is the subject of an extradition request by the US from Trinidad and Tobago and is currently at liberty in the country having paid bail of 2.5 million dollars. On June 2, Blatter promised to step down as FIFA president despite winning a fifth term in an election at the FIFA congress in Zurich just four days earlier.
Blatter said he would work on reforms together with the chairman of the independent audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala, until his successor is elected at an extraordinary congress in late 2015 or early 2016.

Blatter to skip U-20 final in New Zealand
FIFA boss Sepp Blatter has cancelled plans to visit New Zealand for this weekend’s Under-20 World Cup final in Auckland, world football’s governing body said.
“Due to his current commitments in Zurich, the FIFA president (Blatter) will not be able to travel to New Zealand to attend the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup,” a spokeswoman said.
The Swiss supremo would likely have received a cool reception had he made the long trip, after New Zealand Football (NZF) defected from the Blatter camp and voted against him in last month’s presidential election. NZF chief Andy Martin said earlier this month that he hoped Blatter stayed away as his presence would turn the tournament final into a “sideshow”.
Blatter, who has been in charge of FIFA since 1998, has announced he will quit after the organisation was engulfed by a series of widespread corruption allegations. The FIFA U-20 World Cup final will take place on Saturday, featuring the winners of today’s semi-finals in which Brazil play Senegal and Serbia take on Mali.