Former FIFA official vows to spill ‘avalanche’ of secrets

Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, a central figure in world soccer's deepening scandal, vowed on Wednesday to tell investigators all he knows about corruption within the sport's governing body. The announcement came hours after another FIFA official admitted to accepting bribes.

In a paid political address titled “The Gloves are Off” broadcast in Trinidad and Tobago late on Wednesday, Warner said he feared for his life, but would reveal everything he knows.

He said he had instructed his lawyers to contact law enforcement officials both in his homeland and overseas.

“There can be no reversal of the course of action I've now embarked upon,” said Warner, a prominent local politician and businessman.

“Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming,” he added.

Warner said some of the documents he had related to financial dealings with FIFA, some of which are being investigated by U.S. authorities. But he also said he had documents linking FIFA with the 2010 Trinidad and Tobago government elections.

“I have kept quiet, fearing this day might come. I will do so no more,” he said. “I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country.”

Warner is among more than a dozen officials charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes. Now facing extradition to the U.S., he is a key figure in the drama that led to the resignation of FIFA’s former president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Warner solicited bribes worth millions and charged him with offenses including racketeering and bribery.

His address on Wednesday came hours after American Chuck Blazer, another former FIFA executive committee member, admitted taking bribes relating to a range of tournaments, including the 1998 and 2010 World Cups.

Prosecutors unsealed a 40-page transcript Wednesday of a November 2013 hearing in U.S. District Court during which Blazer pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges.

“Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup,” Blazer told U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie.

Wire services