SUNDERLAND, England (AP) -- Sunderland manager Roy Keane called FIFA vice president Jack Warner a "clown" for intervening in the club-versus-country dispute over striker Dwight Yorke.
Keane has named Yorke in the squad for Saturday's Premiership game at Wigan.
Warner, who is from Trinidad, accused Keane of showing "callous disregard" for the national team, drawing a furious rebuke from the Irishman.
"The man's a clown," Keane said Friday. "He sent me a letter and he was quite happy to give it to the media. I spoke to him on Wednesday and I told him what I thought about him and where I think he should go. He is writing these letters and it is always under the FIFA heading just to impress everybody. If he is vice president of FIFA, then God help us."
Yorke captained Trinidad & Tobago in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw with Guatemala on Saturday but Keane asked him to return to Sunderland before the team's 3-0 defeat in Chicago on Wednesday.
Keane has named Yorke, his former Manchester United teammate, in Sunderland's squad for Saturday's Premier League game at Wigan.
Under FIFA regulations, Trinidad & Tobago could have insisted on Yorke traveling to Chicago, but the player told the Trinidad Express he was "feeling caught between a rock and a hard place with my club and my country."
Sunderland claimed Yorke, 36, had been given a one-year contract extension after promising he would only play for his country if it did not interfere with his domestic commitments.
"Your callous disregard for the rights of 'small' countries to have their players represent them as enshrined in FIFA regulations reveals a mean streak in your character," Warner wrote in a letter leaked to the media. "It is one which will not endear you or Sunderland to such countries and it is a dangerous path to tread.
"Your continuing insensitivity and disrespect for countries such as Trinidad and Tobago are hereby noted."
Yorke, 36, came out of international retirement to make a cameo appearance in the friendly against England in June. During that match, his Sunderland and Trinidad & Tobago teammate Kenwyne Jones suffered knee ligament damage.
"He (Warner) has not written me a letter about Kenwyne Jones, who got injured playing in a friendly match. They selected Carlos Edwards last year when he was out with a broken leg," Keane said.
"Yorkie keeps making these cameo guest appearances for them, so maybe they have got some sort of deal going on themselves, I don't know."http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/football/09/12/england.keane.ap/index.html
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