It turns out that FIFA has fined Jack Warner's son US$1 million for the scandal involving World Cup ticket sales last year.

It is so disheartening seeing all this corruption going on!

Article from the Trinidad Guardian

March 14, 2007

THE eldest son of Fifa vice president and UNC deputy political leader Jack Warner has reportedly been hit with a US$1 million fine for scalping 2006 World Cup tickets.

According to a London Daily Mail exclusive by Andrew Jennings, Fifa’s executive committee secretly fined Daryan Warner the expected profit from the venture.

Simpaul Travel, the Warner family business, through which the tickets were acquired from Fifa, has also reportedly been banned from dealing in tickets.

The exorbitant fine is the latest dilemma to plague the Warner family, after the World Cup which saw T&T compete for the first time.

Jack, who himself was found guilty in early 2006 of breaching Fifa’s ethics code as it related to the selling of World Cup tickets, denied knowledge of the fine. When contacted yesterday, he said his son was out of the country but he “was not aware of such a fine by Fifa towards Daryan.”

However, Jennings reported that confidential minutes from last December’s executive committee meeting revealed that “despite numerous reminders from Fifa,” only US$250,000 had been paid.

The fine was ordered to be donated to the charity SOS Children’s Villages.

The London newspaper back-cover story detailed Simpaul Travel’s acquisition of more than 5,400 tickets from Fifa that were then sold at huge mark-ups to package-tour operators in England, Japan, and Mexico.

It stated a further 1,700 tickets, allocated to the Trinidad World Cup team, were diverted to Simpaul.

While Jack disposed of his shares in Simpaul, Daryan continued as managing director and reportedly, during the World Cup, collected hundreds more tickets from the Fifa office in Berlin and passed them to “touts” to sell at a profit.

A report to Fifa in June from auditors Ernst and Young alleged the Warners stood to make profits of nearly US$1 million.

The secret deadline for the full payment of US$992,652 is March 22, the next meeting of Fifa’s executive.

If there is no more money paid over, I can’t see that Blatter is going to take action,” stated a Fifa source quoted in the article.

After all, Jack Warner controls 35 crucial votes that will ensure Sepp Blatter gets a third term.”