EDITORIAL - Hit the road, Jack

• Opportunities in Warner's departure

Jack Warner walked the plank before he was pushed. His departure may not remove the stench that still hangs over world football, but it provides an opportunity for cleaning up what Edward Seaga, the former Jamaican prime minister and president of the island's Professional Football Association (PFA), refers to as "the mess" in which the regional game finds itself.

This, of course, will be no easy job, for it will mean overturning a hardened culture of impunity and dislodging long-standing officials who have prospered in an environment that lacks transparency, or, at best, is of opaque accountability.

Warner's departing rant over claims that he facilitated the meeting of Caribbean football officials at which they were offered and/or received bribes for voting Mohamed bin Hammam for the FIFA presidency underscores the mindset that will make reform a tough job. He construed no ethical breach in the handing out to delegates of brown envelopes, each apparently stuffed with US$40,000, and his later statement to officials that the money from bin Hammam was for use as they saw fit.

Indeed, Warner suggested that such 'gift-giving' has been around in world football for a long time, and it was 'hypocrisy' for FIFA and others to finger him now. Except that it is not the first time that Jack Warner has come under scrutiny for his ethics, of which many people have found him wanting.

For nearly three decades he ran the Caribbean Football Union and CONCACAF akin to a private fiefdom, and parlayed his vice-presidency of FIFA into a profitable enterprise - and not always, the evidence suggests, within the rules. Seemingly unashamed and undeterred, he weathered perennial accusations of corruption.

But Warner could not have operated in this imperious manner without building a loyal coterie around him, which was accomplished, in part, by leveraging his power in favour of supporters. To cross Jack Warner, however, was to risk ostracism or banishment after the creatively legal application of the rule book. Ask Peter Jenkins of St Kitts and Nevis who wanted to join the executive committee of CONCACAF.

Chance for new, quality leadership

It is Jack Warner's culture, this concentration of authority, we believe we discerned in the warning to Mr Seaga by Horace Burrell, the president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and a Warner acolyte, that Seaga would not be "allowed to use the privileges granted by the JFF to the PFA to hurl insults and disrespect at members of the federation".

Mr Seaga had demanded a public statement from the JFF about the bin Hammam bribery allegations, which Mr Burrell denied, on behalf of the JFF.

So, Warner is gone, and we agree with Mr Seaga on the need for a new quality of leadership in regional football. Our priority, however, is Jamaica.

In that regard, the JFF should lead the way with a culture of transparency and accountability. Those who love the sport should demand it, and those who are asked to finance the JFF's projects should insist upon it as quid pro quo - FIFA rules, regardless.

Domestic clubs, too, should embrace this ideal of transparency and accountability. Indeed, it is the same quality of governance that we ask of, and deserve from our political leaders.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.