Jack Warner, a now-banned former FIFA vice-president, lost his appeal to avoid being sent to the US, but he still intends to contest the corruption allegations brought against him.
Formerly one of the sport's most important figures, Warner served on the FIFA executive committee and voted to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup.
Warner may be extradited seven years after the United States submitted an extradition request, according to a Privy Council decision in London, which is Trinidad and Tobago's highest court of appeal.
Trinidadian-born Warner was at the centre of the 2015 global football federation corruption scandal, which led to FBI arrests in Zurich and the indictment of numerous top officials.
In May 2015, the United States Department of Justice indicted Warner and issued an arrest warrant.
The former president of CONCACAF, the soccer governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, is charged with “wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering.”
Darryll and Daryan, sons of Warner, pled guilty to counts in the DOJ indictment.
In September 2015, Warner, 79, was permanently banned from any football activities by FIFA’s ethics committee.
“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 ethics committee stated.
Warner stated that the legal actions against him and others were related to the failure of the United States and England to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
“The United States of America and the United Kingdom, who had previously hosted the World Cup, were not selected despite sustained lobbying. They were therefore not pleased and thereafter began a campaign against FIFA, which resulted in the arrest and prosecution of several Executive Committee members of FIFA,” he added.
Warner reiterated his resistance to extradition based on the fact that he had “no banking account or property in the United States.” Still, he stated that he had asked his legal team to continue defending him.
“I have advised them to continue to press my case on the three remaining stages of these proceedings. I have lived in this country for nearly eighty years, and I am confident that I will continue to receive the love, affection, and respect that people from all walks of life have always extended to me. I am certain I will prevail in the end,” he stated.