adminJOHANNESBURG. — A 2007 e-mail shows FIFA president Sepp Blatter and then-South African President Thabo Mbeki held “discussions” over $10 million that ultimately went to allegedly corrupt soccer executives as payback for supporting the country’s World Cup bid, a newspaper claimed yesterday.
South Africa’s Sunday Times reported that the e-mail from FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke to the South African government asks when the $10 million will be transferred.
The newspaper said that in the e-mail, which was not published, Valcke wrote that the $10 million was “based on discussions between FIFA and the South African government, and also between our president (Blatter) and President Thabo Mbeki.”
American investigators alleged in their indictment into corruption in world soccer that the $10 million went to Jack Warner, who is currently under arrest, as payback for him and two other senior FIFA executives voting for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
FIFA and the South African government have said it was money given legitimately by South Africa to help soccer development in Warner’s Caribbean region. Mbeki’s office denied any involvement in bribes in a statement when the FIFA corruption scandal broke.
However, the South African money ended up going directly to former FIFA vice president Warner of Trinidad and American Chuck Blazer, both former members of FIFA’s executive committee.
Blazer has admitted to receiving bribes in connection with the 2004 vote that resulted in South Africa becoming the first African nation to host the World Cup.
Warner is one of 14 soccer and marketing officials indicted and under arrest on corruption charges, which include racketeering, bribery and money laundering.
Blatter quit as FIFA president last week with the world soccer body rocked by the biggest scandal in its 111-year history. The 79-year-old Blatter has not been specifically implicated in the Justice Department investigation.
In Valcke’s e-mail, which is dated December 7, 2007, according to the Sunday Times, he refers to the $10 million as a commitment “to the legacy programme for the Diaspora and specifically the Caribbean countries” and says it stems from talks between Blatter and Mbeki, who was president at the time of South Africa’s successful World Cup bid. He left office in 2008. — AFP.
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