Jack Warner: Indicted Fifa executive falls for satirical The Onion article
Indicted Fifa executive Jack Warner has accused the USA of "double standards" over its attack on football's governing body…and used an article from satire website The Onion as evidence.
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Fifa's former vice-president, arrested last week as part of a Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation into fraud and money laundering, cited a faux news report titled "Fifa Frantically Announces 2015 Summer World Cup in the United States" as evidence that Fifa is actually an accommodating ally of the US.
In the video, since edited to remove the embarrassing episode, Warner holds up a print-out of the article and says:
And then I look to see that Fifa has frantically announced, 2015, this year…If Fifa is so bad, why is it that it wants to keep the World Cup?
The Trinidad and Tobago politician goes on to thank supporters for the "blank cheques" that have been sent to him and accuses the US authorities of being motivated by the "embarrassment" of losing its World Cup bid to Qatar.
The Onion article cited as evidence by Warner spoofs a worried Fifa hurriedly awarding the US the World Cup in response to the arrest of a number of its top officials last week.
One line even reads: "At press time, the US national team was leading defending champions Germany in the World Cup's opening match after being awarded 12 penalties in the game's first three minutes."