FORMER CONCACAF and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has launched a US$40M countersuit against the regional football governing body and United States Soccer Federation (USSF) president Sunil Gulati.
The response comes just days after the announcement that the body had taken legal action in the form of a US$20M lawsuit against Warner and former CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer.
In a statement released on Tuesday Warner, who resigned from FIFA in 2011 amidst the fallout of the infamous cash-for-votes scandal, accused the body of “persistent defamation” and claimed enough was enough.
“I have left the CONCACAF since 2011. Why the CONCACAF will not leave my family and me alone is simply mind-boggling. CONCACAF football is at its lowest today and the current threat to sue Warner and Blazer for US$20M is nothing more than a distraction to shift its pathetic current state away from the management of this Confederation,” the release said.
Warner, who is also the target of an extradition request by the United States to answer charges of corruption and money-laundering, accused CONCACAF of “vindictiveness” and claims the actions against him stem in part from the inability of the USA to acquire the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.
“All these false allegations filed in an American court simply because the USA did not obtain the votes to host a FIFA World Cup will fall to nought,” Warner said.
“I have my name to protect and my family to defend and that I will do to the very end. I have been slaughtered for the past six years and have remained silent ignoring my legal options to respond to the atrocities that have been perpetrated against me by men of the lower ilk. And so the time has come for me to respond.”