FIFA Corruption Scandal: Jack Warner Allegation Timeline Extends Decades Before Lifetime Ban

International soccer executive Jack Warner’s years of dodging corruption allegations caught up with him Tuesday when FIFA’s ethics committee issued the Trinidadian official a lifetime ban from all soccer-related activities. The announcement came just days after Warner was implicated by Swiss authorities in a shady media rights deal with outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter, but Warner’s alleged misdeeds extend back decades.

FIFA said Warner was banned after the investigatory chamber of its ethics committee found evidence he engaged in wrongdoing related to bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. International soccer’s governing body had been investigating Warner since January.

“Mr. Warner was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF,” FIFA said in a statement. “In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes.”

The rebuke was just the latest of several aimed at Warner, whose name has repeatedly popped up as the international community sets its sights on eliminating corruption in FIFA’s executive branch. Warner was one of nine current or former FIFA executives the United States Justice Department indicted in May as part of what it called a “24-year scheme” to illicitly profit from their dealings with international soccer.

Warner has maintained his innocence throughout each of these corruption scandals. He remained defiant when asked about the lifetime ban, according to Martyn Ziegler of the U.K.’s Press Association.

For Warner, FIFA’s lifetime ban is little more than a formality. At 72 years old, Warner hadn’t held a position with FIFA since 2011, when he resigned from the organization. But for critics, the ban is the culmination of years of allegations and shady dealings. A rough timeline of Warner’s involvement in recent FIFA corruption scandals can be found below.

2011: Warner resigns, under a cloud of suspicion, from FIFA’s executive committee and from his role as president of CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.

At the time, Warner faced a FIFA investigation into allegations that he bribed Caribbean soccer officials to support Qatari soccer official Mohamed bin Hammam’s bid to become FIFA’s president. Hammam received a lifetime ban for his role in the scandal, but FIFA dropped its investigation into Warner when he resigned.

May 2015: Warner, along with eight other current or former FIFA executives and five marketing officials, is indicted by the U.S. Justice Department. Warner and his co-defendants allegedly exchanged more than $150 million in bribes related to media and marketing rights, according to a press release. The indictment further alleged that Warner, along with former FIFA Executive Committee member Chuck Blazer, agreed to support South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup in exchange for a $10 million bribe, the Wall Street Journal reported.

September 2015: Warner is cursorily involved in a Swiss criminal probe into Blatter on suspicion of “criminal mismanagement.” Swiss authorities are investigating allegations that Blatter in 2005 gave the Warner-led Caribbean Football Union television rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups at far below market value.

FIFA issues Warner a lifetime ban from all international soccer activities after internal investigators found evidence of corruption related to his involvement in bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.