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The Gloves Are Off, the Die Is Cast, Tyrants Will Fall: FIFA's Jack Warner Speaks

In an extraordinary televised address, former FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner claimed he could prove soccer's governing body interfered in his country's election, and that he feared for his life.
Photo by Alva Viarruel/EPA

The former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner today made a dramatic televised address in which he claims he fears for his life and has documents directly implicating Sepp Blatter in wrongdoing.

Speaking in a broadcast entitled Jack Warner: The Gloves Are Off, the soccer official also claimed he could prove a link between FIFA officials and the 2010 national election in Trinidad and Tobago.

"I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country," said Warner, who was arrested last week but later released on bail and now has an Interpol red notice issued against him. "I have kept quiet, knowing this day might come. I will do so no more. Mahatma Gandhi once said that all through history there have been tyrants, but in the end they all fall."

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'Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming'

The former Trinidad and Tobago minister of national security, who sat on FIFA's executive committee from 1983 to 2011, said the documents he held detailed his knowledge of international transactions "including, but not limited to, its president, Mr. Sepp Blatter. And lastly other matters involving the nation's [Trinidad and Tobago's] current prime minister."

Sitting in an office and wearing a shiny shirt and tie in luminous green — the color of his Independent Liberal Party — Warner asked viewers to pray for him, his family and his country, while ominous music played in the background. "I reasonably actually fear for my life," he said. "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming. The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall."

He apologized to the people of Trinidad for not disclosing his "avalanche" of secrets earlier.

Meanwhile South Africa's organized crime unit said Thursday it would conduct a preliminary investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the 2010 World Cup bid, which were revealed in court documents unsealed in the US yesterday.

Former FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer told a US District Court hearing in 2013 that he and other top officials at FIFA took bribes connected to South Africa's successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup, and pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges.

Related: The FIFA Net Closes In: Will Sepp Blatter Be Next?

Blazer was the number two official of soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean region from 1990-2011 and served on FIFA's executive committee from 1997 to 2013.

A string of current and former FIFA officials were arrested last week accused of money laundering and bribery on a massive scale over more than three decades. Blatter announced his decision to resign on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.