October 22, 2007: Scottish Official Alleges FIFA Powerbroker Wanted Payment Made into His Personal Account

John McBeth, a former chairman of the Scottish Football Association, says that Jack Warner, a top FIFA executive and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, asked for a fee for an international friendly match in 2004 to be paid into his personal bank account. “Trinidad and Tobago came to play Scotland at Hibernian’s ground in Easter Road in Edinburgh,” says McBeth. “And after the game he asked me to make a check out to his personal account for the game. And I said ‘We don’t do that, it should go to the association.’ I then found out later that he’d approached several other staff in my organization—to do exactly the same thing.” Warner denies the allegations. McBeth had previously been withdrawn as a potential FIFA executive committee member after making comments alleging corruption in football circles in Africa and the Carribean. [BBC, 10/29/2007]