SA paid R120m for World Cup vote – indictment
Publish date: 28 May 2015
Issue Number: 3761
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Corruption
SA officials paid more than $10m (R120m) in bribes to host the 2010 World Cup and handed over a briefcase stuffed with $10 000 stacks of banknotes in Paris, a US Justice Department indictment alleged yesterday, notes a Sport24 report. Attorney-General Loretta Lynch said executives from soccer's governing body Fifa took bribes in exchange for voting for SA to become the first African nation to host the tournament. An indictment unsealed in New York alleges that former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner (72) diverted a ‘substantial portion’ of the funds for his personal use. The document claims that Warner and his family cultivated ties with SA soccer officials dating back to the early 2000s and the country's first and thwarted bid to host the World Cup in 2006. ‘At one point,’ the indictment alleges, Warner ordered an intermediary to fly to Paris and ‘accept a briefcase containing bundles of US currency in $10 000 stacks in a hotel room’ from a high-ranking SA bid committee official. According to the FBI’s indictment, the SA government and the bid committee, including a ‘co-conspirator 16’, were prepared to arrange for the government to pay $10m to the Caribbean Football Union to ‘support the African diaspora’. A Business Day report quotes SA Football Association spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi as saying: ‘Those are just allegations. No one is being investigated here.’
A Beeld report says two local soccer leaders as well as the government are fingered in the indictment as 'accomplices'. Esethu Hasane, spokesperson for Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, says he is 'aware of the allegations' and will brief the country today. Lynch reportedly told AFP yesterday that SA won the 2010 bid (against Morocco and Egypt) in the absence of a clean and fair voting process. Both 'accomplices' mentioned in indictment – identified only as 'accomplice 15' and 'accomplice 16' – were part of the SA World Cup bidding committee. The first alleged transaction involving SA was when 'Fifa leaders, the government and the SA bidding committee, including 'accomplice 16', arranged for the SA government pay $10m to the Caribbean Soccer Union 'to support the Africa diaspora'. The report notes 'accomplice 16' was also part of the SA organising committee. The other alleged transaction was when 'accomplice 15' handed over the bundles of $10 000 notes in the suitcase.
