Fourteen current and former FIFA executives and their associates were arrested by Swiss and American authorities last week in what was called a global crackdown of corruption within soccer’s international governing body.
One of those executives was Jack Warner, a 72-year-old Trinidad and Tobago politician who used to be the FIFA vice president as well as an executive committee member.
While several of the accused wrongdoers have already entered guilty pleas, Warner has decided to take a different route by pleading his innocence and suggesting that the only reason the United States is coming after FIFA is because Qatar beat out the U.S. as the host nation for the 2022 World Cup.
Fair enough.
But Warner’s claim lost all credibility when he cited a story about FIFA awarding the United States with an impromptu World Cup this summer — in fact, one that would start later that afternoon — that was written by…wait for it…The Onion.
The good news for American soccer fans is that their team was leading the Germans at press time thanks to 12 penalties in the first three minutes of the game.
We’ll see if Warner is worried about the headline “Taylor Swift Now Dating Senator Joseph McCarthy” as well since McCarthy is now a corpse: The 100 Greatest Headlines From ‘The Onion’
