Bizarre link between Wolverhampton McDonald's and World Cup corruption probe
It is not a link most people would have in their minds.
A McDonald’s restaurant in Wolverhampton and the failed England 2018 World Cup bid.
But the two have been put together in the latest submission of claims the World Cup bid was in ‘violation of bidding rules’.
The scandal centres on University of Wolverhampton graduate Richard Sebro, who is a family friend of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.
Mr Sebro, the son of Mr Warner’s banker, was found a job at Aston Villa, Premier League side Tottenham and then Wembley after a request for help from Warner to the then FA chairman Lord Triesman.
The revelations come in a report by US lawyer Michael Garcia which also published extracts from a note sent to Warner from Mr Sebro. It suggests the FA was attempting to curry favour with the former FIFA executive by helping the student.
According to the report, Mr Sebro tells Warner in the note that his new-found work spared him from flipping burgers at McDonald’s in Wolverhampton.
It reads: ‘I thought I would thank you once again for helping me to have the opportunity to get an interesting, eye opening and perspective changing job during these summer months.
‘’My colleagues in Wolverhampton with similar qualifications are competing for extra shifts in McDonald’s and I fully appreciate the privilege not having to do that.
‘I met with (FA chairman) Lord Triesman yesterday and he asked for you. I had to honestly reply that I had not heard from you in some time.’
The report by Mr Garcia on behalf of FIFA shows how ‘England 2018 placed particular emphasis on winning over Jack Warner’.
Warner’s cast one of the votes for where the world cup should be staged and Russia won. He was at the time was FIFA vice president and the CONCACAF president.
Warner became embroiled in corruption allegations and, in 2015, was banned from taking part in any football-related activity for life.
According to Mr Garcia’s report, Warner considered Sebro as his ‘adopted son’, and put pressure on Mr Triesman for employment opportunities.
The England bid team also ‘kept Mr Warner apprised of their efforts as they solicited his support’, says the report.
The report concluded on the issue that the connection with Warner ‘opened doors’ up to the 2010 vote.
It states: “Warner sought to exploit that perception of his power, showering England’s bid team with inappropriate requests. The bid team often accommodated his wishes, in apparent violation of bidding rules and the FIFA code of ethics.”
Mr Sebro graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with an MSc in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology in 2011.
In a ‘My Life’ feature on the university’s website, Mr Sebro said he was attracted to Wolverhampton as ‘he was looking for a quiet English town where he could meet real British people and experience the culture’.
It said he now lived back in Trinidad, working as a research officer for the Government’s Ministry of Energy.
He later received an award from Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minster for a presentation he did on a scientific experiment he carried out.
University of Wolverhampton spokesman James Allen said: “We can confirm he is a graduate of ours who has gone on to work in in scientific research in Trinidad and won an award from the Prime Minister.”
According to the report produced by FIFA’s then chief ethics investigator Michael Garcia in 2014, England 2018 “provided full and valuable co-operation in establishing the facts and circumstances of this case” with witnesses made available for interview and documents produced on request.
The report by Mr Garcia also identified ‘conduct by England 2018 that may not have met the standards set out in the FCE (FIFA code of ethics) or the bid rules’.
It adds that the English bid team’s ‘culpability is mitigated by the fact that these issues were uncovered largely as a result of its co-operation’.
It concluded: “According to (England 2018) bid team CEO Andy Anson, Mr Warner was one of three executive committee members – along with Mohamed Bin Hammam and Issa Hayatou – who ‘had a disproportionate amount of power in terms of voting.
"You know, they really did control blocks of votes, and so if you didn’t have them backing you, then you really didn’t have much of a bid in the first place.’”
