Fmr. FIFA Vice President, Warner

Jack Warner, a former vice president of soccer’s world governing body, was banned from the sport for life on Tuesday for “many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official,” FIFA’s ethics committee said.


“In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other moneymaking schemes,” said the committee, which opened the probe in January.  


Mr. Warner is currently under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly playing a central role in massive corruption over the course of two decades. He is fighting extradition to the U.S. from his native Trinidad and 

Tobago on charges of racketeering. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Hours later on Tuesday, Switzerland approved the extradition of another soccer official named by the Justice Department indictment, Eduardo Li of Costa Rica. 

He was one of seven soccer officials and executives arrested in Zurich on May 27, two days before he was due to be elevated to FIFA’s Executive Committee. He was the fourth of those seven to have his extradition to the 

U.S. approved. Mr. Li has 30 days to lodge an appeal.


Mr. Li, who has denied wrongdoing, “is accused of taking bribes in connection with the sale of marketing rights for World Cup 2018 qualifiers to a U.S. sports marketing company,” the Swiss Federal Office of Justice said.


Mr. Warner, who is in Trinidad, is scheduled for a hearing there related to his extradition proceedings in December.


Meanwhile, his soccer ban won’t make any real practical difference since Mr. Warner, 72 years old, doesn’t hold an official position in soccer and was unlikely to return to the upper echelons of the sport’s administration. Most of the organization had long severed ties with him, FIFA insiders say.


“I left the FIFA in April 2011 and if in September 2015 (some four years and five months after) the FIFA wants to ban me for life without even a hearing then so be it,” 

Mr. Warner wrote in a statement posted to his official Facebook page.  “Given what is happening in Zurich with Sepp Blatter I guess that there is no such thing as a coincidence.”