ANDREW JENNINGS’ LATEST BOMBSHELL!
BY PROF DR IAN BLACKSHAW
The latest Book from the award-winning investigative journalist, Andrew Jennings, which has just been published (April 2014), is an e-book of 380 pages, entitled, ‘Omerta’. As usual with Jennings’ publications, it is well worth reading!
Jennings has exposed several scandals in major international sports bodies, for example, the IOC in his ‘The Lords of the Rings, Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics’, which was published in 1992, and more recently in ‘FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA’, published in 2006, which exposes bribes, vote-rigging and ticket scandals. Now another one on FIFA!
In a foreword to his latest Book, Jennings is described by Romario, the former and famous Brazilian striker and now Brazilian Senator, who is pursuing a political campaign to rid Brazilian football of corruption, as someone with “guts and a lot of courage!”
In ‘Omerta’, the term for the ‘Mafia Code of Silence’, Jennings, as he claims, exposes “Sepp Blatter’s organised crime family!”
The following summary of what is in the Book gives the flavour of his latest offering, in which, as usual, he does not pull any punches and tells things as they are – warts and all!
“‘Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios’
John Prine,
Sam Stone,
1971
As this book is completed, we wait to see if the FBI will indict leading members of Blatter’s FIFA Family. The investigations by an FBI Organised Crime Squad, based in Federal Plaza, New York, began in 2010 and I have met in London with Special Agents and
officials from the Department of Justice.
In March 2013 Reuters reported that Jack Warner’s son Daryan is a co-operating witness, presumably handing over Daddy’s offshore bank accounts. There is also said to be interesting video evidence from security cameras at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.
It is likely that Chuck Blazer is also co-operating. The FBI and the IRS became aware in late summer 2011 that Blazer was running his tax avoidance schemes through banks in the Caribbean — but nearly three years later he has not yet been indicted.
Will The Belly go to jail? Will Warner and Blatter and more of FIFA’s leadership be in adjoining cells?”
The Book includes a final bonus and highly topical Chapter on ‘Rio, bribes and the 2016 Olympics’. It will be interesting to see what, if any, reaction from the IOC this Chapter provokes.
As I said at the beginning, ‘Omerta’ is a Book that all those, who are engaged in sport in any way and also concerned about its threatened integrity, should definitely read!
More information from Jennings’ personal website at ‘www.transparencyinsport.org’.
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw is an International Sports Lawyer, Academic and Author and may be contacted by e-mail at ‘This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ’
