Sports lawyer Dr Emir Crowne believes it’s about time Austin “Jack” Warner faces the music for his actions, having now exhausted all legal options available in his fight to avoid extradition to the United States to answer to corruption charges.

Crowne, one of the region’s leading experts in intellectual property and sports law, shared his thoughts after Warner, the former vice-president of football’s world governing body FIFA, lost his battle at the Privy Council on Thursday.

The London-based court, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest appeal court, dismissed contention by Warner’s legal team that the extradition request was unlawful. The ruling now clears the way for resumption of extradition proceedings in the twin-island republic’s magistrate court.

“One normally sees some divergence among the levels of court in matters like this. However, all three levels of court –the High Court, the Court of Appeal and now the Privy Council – have upheld, or confirmed, the lawfulness of the extradition process to date,” Crowne said.

“In my view, this matter has dragged on long enough. One need only recall that it began in 2015 on the basis that Mr Warner had, allegedly, committed 29 offences of fraud, corruption and money laundering, allegations, which regained prominence recently in Netflix‘s FIFA Uncovered,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Warner, who also served as Concacaf president, was indicted in May 2015.

Following the United States’ July 24, 2015 request for him to face charges of wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, Warner challenged the procedure of the extradition proceedings, as well as the authority to proceed granted by the attorney general in September that year, which gave the court the go-ahead to begin the proceedings.

US prosecutors allege that from as far back as 1990, Warner leveraged his influence and exploited his official positions for personal gain.

Among other things, the former football administrator is accused of receiving $5 million in bribes – sent via more than two dozen separate wire transfers from 10 different shell companies to a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) account he controlled at Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago – to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.

Warner and Jeffrey Webb, another former Concacaf president, were among 14 defendants charged in connection with the 24-year scheme that prosecutors allege was designed to “enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer”.

Despite the latest ruling, the tough-talking 79-year-old Warner, who was banned him from all soccer-related activities for life by FIFA in 2015, vowed to continue fighting.

“I have no banking account or property in the United States. I have not transacted any business there. It is unfathomable how a New York District Attorney could commence a prosecution against me based solely on the fact that monies payable to me passed through the American banking system,” a defiant Warner pointed out in a statement via Facebook.

Crowne rubbished Warner’s statement as one that betrays a simple truth.

“The passing of monies through the US banking systems does indeed give the US presumptive jurisdiction in the matter,” Crowne revealed.

“At the end of the day, it cannot be the case that delays and technicalities are used as both shields and swords to prevent the timely and proper administration of justice.

“Also, when one looks at the Webb et al. indictment, it expressly indicates that Warner was ‘a legal permanent resident of the United States between approximately 1993 and 2013’. Yet another basis on which jurisdiction is presumptively established,” he added.

Meanwhile, football administrator Carvel Stewart also believes time has caught up to Warner, as his extradition seems imminent.

“I am sympathetic to the fact that it really was a witch hunt by the Americans and the British because they had lost in their efforts to win back the World Cup and after that happened they decided to go after the Fifa people.

“Now that doesn’t excuse what they [Warner and company] did because Fifa has a lot of corruption, but the hounding of Warner and the other guys wasn’t so much to do with the corruption at Fifa,” Stewart opined.

“So it is really unfortunate, in my view, but he said that he will continue to fight. I don’t know if he has any other constitutional leg that he can exploit, so it’s interesting to see what happens because the T&T Government might be under pressure and you know the Americans have enough ammo to bully all of us, so let’s see what happens,” he added.