AUSTIN Jack Warner, the former Fifa vice-president who has been fighting the United States Government’s attempt to extradite him on bribery, money laundering, and other fraud-related charges, on Saturday said that the “nightmare” brought upon him by that action is now over.

Warner made the comment in response to a New York Times report on January 27, 2024 stating that in September last year the US Supreme Court and a lower court threw out the convictions of two defendants linked to football corruption.

According to the New York Times, the US Supreme Court held that prosecutors in the US overreached their boundaries when they applied laws of the United States to groups of people, many of them being foreign nationals, who allegedly defrauded Fifa, another foreign organisation with its headquarters based in Switzerland.

“My lawyers have told me that my nightmare is over, and I have every reason to believe what they have said. They are now working to pursue the matter further to see what redress I am entitled to. They have told me that my nightmare is over because the Supreme Court is not a court that you can appeal against — it is the final court in the US,” the Saturday Express newspaper in Trinidad quoted Warner from a Friday interview on radio station i95.5FM with sports commentator Andre Baptiste.

In light of the US Supreme Court ruling several former football officials at Fifa, including some who paid millions of dollars in penalties and served time in prison, are arguing that the bribery schemes for which they were convicted are no longer considered a crime in the United States.

They are now seeking to have all their fines repaid, and to also be compensated for the time they were made to spend in prison.

During the interview with Baptiste, Warner said he always knew that the US Government was overstepping its boundaries.

“I am in full agreement with the Supreme Court matter. I always knew that the US was wrong to attack and destroy Fifa and destroy people’s lives and so on just because they did not get a World Cup venue. It is utterly ridiculous for people to be imprisoned and to be charged [for] being a member of a private organisation as Fifa, and to be charged by the US Government for what they did or did not do to stay in Fifa.

“I always knew that was an overreach, [an] overkill, and I think the Supreme Court has justified what my thoughts have been in the matter,” said Warner.

The Saturday Express said that Warner’s extradition proceedings are expected to come up for hearing sometime later this month in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court.

However, given the ruling of the US Supreme Court the extradition warrant that was issued by the US Government in 2015 may be discontinued.

“I am feeling relieved. My life has been destroyed, my family’s life has been destroyed, and I have spent tonnes of money on this matter. All I did was to tell Fifa that it is time to change the paradigm of giving the World Cup to Europe and South America. I said to them, ‘Just go to the Middle East,’ ” he told Baptiste.

“It is this that has caused me to be where I am today. The irony is that people in the Middle East, thanks to my efforts and others, Qatar [which hosted the World Cup in 2022] has produced one of the best World Cups this world has ever seen. So, I feel vindicated in a sense for what I have done but the price that I have paid for that is overbearing,” said Warner.

He added that another issue he wanted to raise was the millions of dollars of taxpayers’ funds that the State had spent paying attorneys to have him extradited to the United States.

“The US Government wants to have me extradited to the US? Then the US should engage lawyers here and spend their own money and not taxpayers’ money — of which part is mine.

“Here, you have a Government of Trinidad and Tobago spending taxpayers’ money to try to get a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago sent to the US.”

Warner said his attorneys had sent a Freedom of Information request to the Office of the Attorney General (AG) to determine exactly how much funds had been dispensed to attorneys up to the date of the request to have him extradited.

The State, he said, only provided some of the information, saying that at least $7.5 million had been spent.

“They said they could not release the rest of information. That has forced us to take the AG to court, and we have engaged the AG in the matter because we feel that a full revelation must be made to the people of this country of what the Government has spent on a trial to get its citizen extradited to another country,” he said.

In May 2015, the US Government launched an attack on what it called deep-seated and brazen corruption in football’s global governing body, pulling Fifa executives out of a luxury hotel in Switzerland to face racketeering charges and raiding regional offices in Miami.

US prosecutors accused the leaders of football federations of tarnishing the sport for nearly a quarter century by taking US$150 million in bribes and pay-offs, laying out a sweeping corruption case that hinged on the testimony of insiders, including some who agreed to cooperate in plea deals.

In announcing the racketeering conspiracy and other charges against 14 defendants, prosecutors also revealed four others had pleaded guilty in secret proceedings dating to July 2013.

Swiss officials also raided Fifa headquarters, seizing records and computers to investigate whether the decisions to award World Cups to Russia and Qatar were rigged.