Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner says he has proof of financial dealings involving the organization's governing body and the 2010 general elections in his home country, Trinidad and Tobago.
Warner, who has been charged in the FIFA corruption scandal, said in a televised address late Wednesday he has documents and checks that link FIFA with the Caribbean island-nation's 2010 election.
"I will no longer keep secrets for them," he said in a paid political broadcast titled The Gloves Are Off, which was shown Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. "I reasonably and surely fear for my life," he declared and added "not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming."
WATCH: Former FIFA official Jack Warner speaks to people of Trinidad and Tobago
Warner said he has compiled a file of documents that shows "a link between FIFA, its funding and me, the link between FIFA its funding and the United National Congress (UNC) and the People's Partnership government in (Trinidad and Tobago's) general election 2010."
Warner, who faces extradition to the United States over the charges faces FIFA, is a former government minister in Trinidad and Tobago. He is now free on bond after his arrest last week.
The former FIFA vice president is one of six people, including a second FIFA official and four executives, who have been placed under a "red notice" by the international law enforcement agency, Interpol, on charges including corruption and racketeering, meaning they risk arrest anywhere in the world if they travel.
The U.S. Justice Department last week charged 14 people with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme prosecutors say involved sports media executives paying or agreeing to pay more than $150 million in exchange for marketing rights to tournaments.
South Africa probe
In other news, a South African special crimes unit said Thursday it has opened a preliminary investigation into bribery allegations surrounding the country's 2010 World Cup bid.
South Africa's government and national football association have denied bribes were paid to secure the right to host the tournament.
U.S court records unsealed Wednesday reveal a former executive committee member of FIFA admitted in 2013 to accepting bribes in connection with the 1998 and 2010 World Cups.
Charles Blazer, a U.S. citizen who spent two decades as one of the world's most powerful sports officials, secretly pleaded guilty to 10 criminal counts in New York as part of an agreement with U.S. prosecutors, according to the partially redacted transcript of the hearing.
Blazer told a U.S. judge that he and others on FIFA's executive committee accepted bribes in conjunction with the choice of France as the host of the 1998 World Cup.
The American says he also accepted bribes over the 2010 event awarded to South Africa.
Federation president Sepp Blatter is reportedly the target of probes by federal prosecutors and the FBI. He abruptly resigned his post during a news conference in Zurich Tuesday.
Blatter, 79, who was just re-elected to a fifth term as FIFA president last Friday, acknowledged that he did not "have a mandate from the entire world of football – the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA."
Possible FIFA presidential candidates
Blatter has ordered an extraordinary congress of the football federation to choose a new president, and said he will retain his presidential powers until then.
In a statement released Tuesday, Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA's audit and compliance committee, said FIFA satutes require a four-month notice for any presidential elections to be held.
“While the decision on timing of the Extraordinary Congress and election of a new president will ultimately be up to the Executive Committee, the expectation is that this could take place anytime from December of this year to March of next year [2016]," Scala said.
Chung Mong-joon, the billionaire heir of South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate and a former member of FIFA's executive board, announced Wednesday in Seoul he is considering running for the FIFA presidency.
The Jordanian government announced Prince Ali bin al-Hussein is also considering a run for FIFA's top job. Prince Ali, who is the president of the Jordanian Football Association, lost to Blatter in the FIFA presidential election Friday.
Some material for this report came from Reuters and AFP.
