Warner plans to sue Trinidad paper

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP)

Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner plans to sue a Trinidad newspaper that he accuses of libel and defamation regarding stories involving funds slated for Haiti reconstruction efforts.

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Warner's attorneys sent a letter Friday to the Trinidad Express stating that Warner gave Haitian officials the full $750,000 pledged earlier by FIFA and South Korean football leader Chung Mong-joon for football rebuilding projects.

Haitian officials had told British newspaper The Sunday Times earlier this month that they received only $60,000. FIFA has frozen all funding to Trinidad and Tobago while the matter is investigated.

Warner's attorneys say that he has accounted for all funds involved.

''The imputations that our client took and misappropriated monies due to Haiti is false, malicious and misleading and calculated to damage our client's reputation,'' the letter states.

Last week, the Trinidad and Tobago football federation said it planned to sue Warner to recover millions of dollars in funds including those slated for Haiti. The federation said it had turned over management of its accounts to Warner and is seeking an audit of them.

Warner resigned last year to avoid a bribery probe after overseeing football's North and Central American and Caribbean governing body for almost 30 years.