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Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner addresses the audience during a meeting of his Independent Liberal Party in Marabella, South Trinidad — REUTERS/Andrea De Silva

LOS ANGELES. — Jack Warner, a former FIFA vice president implicated in the corruption scandal roiling world football, said on Wednesday he can prove a link between football’s global governing body and his country’s 2010 elections.

Warner, a central figure in world soccer’s deepening scandal, has vowed to tell investigators all he knows about corruption within the sport’s governing body.

In a paid political address entitled “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.

He said some of the documents he had related to financial dealings with FIFA, some of which are being investigated by US 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 US Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes.

Prosecutors say Warner solicited bribes worth millions and charged him with offences 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.

Warner, facing possible extradition to the United States after he was indicted by American authorities on corruption charges, has emerged as a key figure in the drama that culminated in FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s stunning resignation on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Warner used a pre-recorded paid political broadcast televised on TV6 in Trinidad and Tobago to say he has compiled a file of documents that shows “a link between FIFA, its funding and me, the link between FIFA, its funding and the United National Congress (UNC) and the People’s Partnership government in (Trinidad and Tobago’s) general election 2010.”

The TV6 website reported that in the five-minute broadcast, Warner said the file “also deals with my knowledge of international transactions at FIFA, including its president Mr Sepp Blatter and, lastly, other matters involving (Trinidad and Tobago’s) current prime minister”.

In the January 2010 UNC internal election, Warner endorsed Kamla Persad-Bissessar as UNC leader. She went on to be elected the country’s first woman prime minister, but Warner later broke with her government and party.

Warner, free on bail after his arrest last week, is one of 14 current or former FIFA officials and sports marketing executives accused by US prosecutors of taking part in a sweeping kickbacks scheme going back 20 years and totalling $150 million in bribes given or received.

In his television address he said he feared for his life, and indicated he will fight extradition.

“I have no intention of allowing them to deprive me of my freedom,” he said. — AFP.