That’s the jaw dropping accusation of former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner Thirty-five years after T&T's World Cup dream died in November 1990.
Branded a villain by some, banned from FIFA, and silent for decades… Warner broke that silence on the 6 to 26 podcast with Andre Errol Baptiste and Tony Lee.
Warner faced accusations, spoke of the scars they left, and made it clear he's not after redemption.
00:00It's been 35 years, but the pain of November 1990 still haunts football fans old enough to remember or care.
00:08A nation stood as one dreaming of World Cup glory.
00:11But a day predestined to be one of this country's greatest ever sporting achievements was drowned out by the tears of defeat.
00:18And at the center of the heartbreak, one man's name rang out, Jack Warner.
00:24Today, for the first time, he speaks.
00:26If you recall clearly, when we had to play the U.S. in the last game, we made some errors by going up quite down south to camp and so on.
00:36Yeah, I remember that.
00:37And come up and kissing babies along the way and so on.
00:40That was foolish.
00:41Okay, that's a part.
00:43But you recall that the U.S.A. had been given the World Cup in 1994.
00:47And from where I sit here, the FIFA needed to get the U.S.A. to be exposed at an international level.
00:54And therefore, as far as FIFA was concerned, the U.S.A. had to qualify.
00:59The point I'm making, therefore, it was from where I sit here now, I will say that FIFA had designed the U.S. to qualify and play in Italy in 1990.
01:09Because four years afterwards would be the U.S.A.
01:12And therefore, that U.S. team would have given them a kind of window to the world, so to speak.
01:16This is my feeling up to now.
01:18Many fans pointed fingers at Jack Warner, a man that has polarized football fans ever since that fateful day.
01:25While some accused him of selling out his country, an accusation he admitted has left deep scars.
01:31But it tells you the level of insult sometimes you have to face, right, for things that are done.
01:36How could I influence on the field of play that, what do you call my name again?
01:42Morris, you know what I'm saying?
01:43Michael Morris.
01:44Michael Morris.
01:45Put him up in the air for a kick 40 yards out and tell me your son in your eye.
01:50How could I do anything for that?
01:52I felt, I felt then that I was finished with football.
01:56I felt that there was nothing more against my all.
02:00I mean, the whole country, as you call, had been mobilized.
02:03Everything was red.
02:04There was no red cloth selling anywhere in any store.
02:08Mena accused him of betrayal, charges he says cut deep.
02:11Banned from FIFA for years, Warner stayed silent.
02:15Now with the ban lifted, he says he's not chasing redemption,
02:19only the respect he feels he's earned.
02:21In the last 14 years, they never asked me anything.
02:24None of the presidents?
02:25None of the presidents.
02:26And they never asked me, they never invited me to any game either.
02:30But you want to go because you just tell me about football.
02:32You tell me about football.
02:33At least an invitation.
02:34Yeah, but that would be my choice.
02:35I believe what I've known for football in this country.
02:38I deserve that respect, right?
02:40I'm not begging for a ticket, you know.
02:42It's okay.
02:42But the respect I deserve.
02:44After 14 years, the jack is out of the box.
02:47His next move will have everyone waiting.
02:51There, as you see in the replay, as they look around.
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