Warner off to UEFA Congress in Cyprus

FIFA Vice-President Jack Austin Warner left here yesterday on his return to Cyprus to officiate at the UEFA Congress which begins today. Warner flew back home from his duties in Cyprus to attend the funeral service for the late Trinidad and Tobago football captain and insurance executive Russell Tesheira on Monday. Following his stint in Cyprus, Warner who is also CONCACAF President, is expected to travel to South Africa on the invitation of re-elected South African President Thabo Mbeki, to attend his inauguration ceremony and the tenth anniversary celebrations at the Union Buildings Pretoria on April 27.

Warner will later be joined by ex-South African President Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu who will be on a  two-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago from April 28. Warner has also extended an invitation to West Indies captain and world record holder Brian Lara to join ex-President Mandela during a school children  rally at the Queen’s Park Oval on April 30. But the West Indies Cricket Board said Lara cannot leave the team camp for the occasion, since he will be in St Lucia for the fifth one-day international on May 1, although Warner assured that he would be flown back and forth on a specially arranged BWIA flight. CONCACAF said, however, they have received no word from government up to this time, regarding a proposed joint sitting of Parliament and the  school children rally to which the public is invited.

Warner issued a congratulatory message to Lara which reads: “Please permit me to now join with so many others in extending warmest congratulations on your unique achievement last weekend in Antigua where you did so much for West Indians in general, and for Trinbagonians in particular. “Besides being most timely, coming as it did during the Eastertide, it revealed once more not only your undoubted talent, but your strength of character, your courage and fortitude, your powers of concentration and, of course, your insatiable appetite for big scores. It was truly amazing!” Only recently, government appointed Warner a Special Mission representative, to assist in having Trinidad and Tobago as the site of the headquarters and Permanent Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).