(REUTERS)-Suspended FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has backed down for legal reasons from his threat to reveal the content of emails with the ruling body’s president Sepp Blatter. In a brief speech in his constituency yesterday, Warner reiterated his innocence of the charges against him but said he would not be making public the emails after discussions with his lawyers.
Warner, also president of CONCACAF, the regional body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has been suspended pending a full investigation by FIFA into allegations that bribery took place at a meeting he organised with Mohammed Bin Hammam.
The meeting in Trinidad involving Bin Hammam, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, was related to the Qatari’s presidential election campaign against Blatter.
Bin Hammam has also been suspended from all football activities and, like Warner, has denied any wrongdoing, while Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president last week at a congress overshadowed by bribery and corruption allegations.