SOCCER-FIFA/S. AFRICA-PAYMENT UPDATE South Africa confirms payment to FIFA official, denies it was a bribe

Record ID: 150006

  • Title: SOCCER-FIFA/S. AFRICA-PAYMENT UPDATE South Africa confirms payment to FIFA official, denies it was a bribe
  • Date: 3rd June 2015
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 3, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SOCCER CITY STADIUM / SOUTH AFRICA FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (SAFA) HOUSE SIGN READING (English): "SAFA HOUSE" SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF SPORTS AND RECREATION FIKILE MBALULA ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE MBALULA SITTING AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAF58FLKLBAN3J9GKVGYJ8TRVWI
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: South Africa confirmed on Wednesday (June 3) it had given $10 million, meant to help pay for the 2010 World Cup, to a soccer official indicted last week in the United States, but said the payment was not a bribe as U.S. prosecutors allege.
    Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed the contents of a leaked letter from the South African Football Association, which said money originally intended for organising the 2010 World Cup had been paid directly to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner.
    But Mbalula said the payment was never intended as a bribe to secure the right to host the 2010 tournament, as described in the U.S. indictment. It was given as a donation to support the building of a soccer centre for people of African descent in the Caribbean, he said.
    "We still need the United States authorities to share with us the basis of their allegations. The fact that the payment of 10 million rands... US dollars... was made to an approved program, above board, does not equate to bribery. Those who allege should prove their allegations," Mbalula told a packed news conference in Johannesburg.
    Warner, the Trinidadian former head of soccer's governing body for the Caribbean and North and Central America, CONCACAF, is one of 14 officials and businessmen indicted last week in a U.S. fraud investigation that has engulfed global soccer.
    The U.S. indictment says South Africa paid him $10 million as a bribe to secure the right to host the 2010 World Cup.
    FIFA, the sport's global governing body, has confirmed that it paid $10 million to the Caribbean Football Union, a body then headed by Warner, out of funds originally earmarked to South Africa to help it host the tournament.
    Last week's U.S. Justice Department indictment alleged that Warner and other CONCACAF members of FIFA's executive committee sought to share the money in return for their votes.
    It details how $750,000 was paid to former CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer, who was also on the FIFA executive at the time. Blazer has pleaded guilty to U.S. corruption charges.
    "The declaration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup as the African World Cup has meant greater cooperation by all Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora. Accordingly, the intent has been from the onset was that all Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora would all benefit from the legacy of the World Cup," said a defiant Mbalula.
    World Cup 2010 organising committee members had been expected to appear at the news conference, but they did not turn up. That means organising committee chairman Irvin Khoza and high profile chief executive officer Danny Jordaan have yet to address the allegations publicly.
    Mbalula said the money paid to the CFU was intended to support a development centre, built by FIFA and named after its president Joao Havelange, in Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital.
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