This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/03/south-africa-denies-fifa-corruption-world-cup

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
South Africa minister says Fifa payment of $10m was not World Cup bribe South Africa minister says Fifa payment of $10m was not World Cup bribe
(about 9 hours later)
Fikile Mbalula, the South African sports minister, has denied his country bribed Fifa officials in order to secure votes for the 2010 World Cup. South Africa denied on Wednesday it bribed Fifa officials with $10m to secure votes for its successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup, insisting the payment was “above board”.
A payment of $10m made to the Caribbean Football Union in 2008 is central to the recent corruption allegations that have engulfed Fifa, a storm that has grown since last week when US and Swiss authorities made numerous arrests in Zurich and resulted in the resignation of Sepp Blatter on Tuesday. Fikile Mbalula, the sports minister, also admitted he was “shocked” by the resignation of Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter. He said Blatter “has been a good friend of South Africa” and “history will remember him” for bringing the World Cup to Africa for the first time.
The country is no stranger to corruption scandals but has been shaken by a case that strikes at the heart of national and continental pride. South Africa has long treasured the moment when its former president Nelson Mandela stood hand in hand with Blatter and the bid leader, Danny Jordaan after it was announced as 2010 host. It then defied global scepticism to pull off a well-run tournament. Now one of the most high-profile success stories in the post-apartheid era is at risk of being tarnished.
“We won the bid clean,” Mbalula told a press conference in Johannesburg. “We had our Madiba [Mandela’s clan name], we had the bishop [Desmond Tutu], we had the spirit of our people, we had the world. After all, it was Africa’s time.”
He confirmed $10m was paid to the former Fifa official Jack Warner in 2008 but insisted it was not a bribe, as US prosecutors allege. It was given as an “above-board” donation to support the building of a football centre for people in the African diaspora in the Caribbean, he claimed. This was alongside $70m of donations to the African continent because this World Cup had always been billed as benefiting all Africans.
“We categorically deny our country and government bribed anyone to receive the right to host the 2010 World Cup,” he said. “It was an approved programme and we can’t understand why this is now interpreted as a bribe … I can today unequivocally state for all to know that this payment was not a bribe.”
The US justice department has alleged $10m was sent by South Africa, through Fifa, to Warner in three wire transfers in 2008 as payback for him and two other then Fifa executive committee members for backing South Africa in the 2004 vote. South Africa won hosting rights by four votes over Morocco, making the ballots of Warner and his two “co-conspirators” decisive.
Fifa has confirmed it paid $10m to the Caribbean Football Union, a body then headed by Warner, out of funds originally earmarked for South Africa to help it host the tournament, but denies it was a bribe. Warner, the Trinidadian former head of football’s governing body for North and Central America, and the Caribbean, Concacaf, is one of 14 officials and businessmen indicted last week in a US fraud investigation. They have all denied wrongdoing.
The sports ministry director-general, Alec Moemi, also at Wednesday’s press conference, said: “We gave the money unconditionally. Jack Warner was the leader of Concacaf and the Caribbean Football Union, and a man of good standing.”
Mbalula rejoined: “You must understand when we are organising the World Cup we are not dealing with gangsters, we are dealing with people. The fact that later they are termed as gangsters … we didn’t know that. We are not sniffer dogs.” “
He claimed the money paid to the CFU was intended to support a development centre, built by Fifa and named after its former president João Havelange, in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital. “There were no suitcases. The money went from bank to bank.”
The Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, this week denied responsibility for the $10m payment, writing in an email to the New York Times that he did not authorise it and did not have the power to do so. Fifa said the transaction was executed by the then finance committee chairman Julio Grondona, who died last year.
Mbalula insisted the government had not contradicted itself after a leaked 2008 letter showed the then South African FA president, Molefi Oliphant, asking Valcke to send the $10m to Warner from South Africa’s World Cup funds. Oliphant twice specified in the letter that the implicated Warner be in control of the money.
“The letter leaked to the media, we don’t know why it was leaked in the first place because that correspondence was above board,” Mbalula said, denying it suggested a bribe was paid. “Criminals can explain a bribe very well. I don’t know how bribes work.”
Mbalula admitted, however, he could not say what Warner did with the money, describing it as “another story for investigators … we don’t know. We can’t account for that.”
The US indictment also alleges a briefcase stuffed with cash was handed over at a Paris hotel as a bribe by a “high-ranking South African bid committee official”. Mbalula said he knew nothing about it: “From everybody I’ve spoken to, no one has come forward to say: ‘It was me who took the briefcase to France.’”
Mbalula also spoke of his shock at Blatter’s decision to quit just days after being re-elected as Fifa president. “Sepp Blatter has been a good friend of South Africa. We will not lie about it. He played a major role in terms of shifting the world focus on Africa in relation to the hosting of the World Cup for the first time. He’s the president of Fifa who delivered it. History will remember him for that. That’s how we’ll remember Sepp.
“As for other conflicts after, it’s for the British and Americans to fight their battles. We’re not part of the vested interests and we’ll never be part of the vested interests. We have fought colonialism and defeated it and we still fight imperialism and we will fight it whenever it manifests itself.”
A theme running through the briefing was how the World Cup had been a hugely symbolic moment of pride for South Africa in particular and Africa in general. After centuries of stereotyping as backward and impoverished, it was an opportunity to show the world a different face and, barring a few minors hitches, went off better than many predicted.
The minister said South Africa had “the responsibility to defend the legacy of the World Cup and Africa’s success”.
South Africa should not become “collateral damage” in the global politics of Fifa, he continued. “We refuse to be caught up in a battle between the United States and Fifa. We won the bid clean, we had the spirit of Mandela, we had the spirit of the world. But we are not on the defensive. It is our responsibility to explain what this $10m was for.”
World Cup 2010 local organising committee (LOC) members had been expected to appear at the news conference, but they did not turn up. “The LOC was disbanded,” Mbalula said. “It has served its purpose.”
The organising committee chairman, Irvin Khoza, and chief executive Jordaan, last week elected as an African National Congress mayor, are yet to address the allegations publicly.
Earlier, in a phone interview, Raymond Hack, chief executive of the South African FA from 2003 to 2010, expressed surprise at the allegations. “The figures they’re talking about: we didn’t even have that money in our entire income.”
Hack took part in South Africa’s bid presentation in Zurich and was present for the announcement of its victory. He met Warner once at an official function, he added, but did not hold any discussions with him. “There’s no light that I can shed on it. At the FA we were not involved in the process. Why don’t they name the people if they know who the people are? There are going to be so many rumours. People are going to speculate and it’s going to spoil the image of the game.”
Rich Mkhondo, who was spokesman for the 2010 World Cup organising committee, was also taken by aback by last week’s revelations. “It’s very sad for our country and very sad for the sport of football. As much as two individuals are accused of corruption, 49m South Africans enjoyed hosting the world in the country.
“I’m worried about the image that will be perpetuated that South Africa is a corrupt country. But I’m not worried about the legacy that the World Cup will leave behind in terms of social cohesion and integration.”
The South African media remains sceptical of the government’s explanations. Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, a leading political cartoonist, published an image in the Times newspaper showing Jordaan leading a duck stamped with the words “$10 million bribe”. It was captioned: “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a … development donation to the African diaspora.”
Mbalula made a plea to the South African media on Wednesday that may well backfire: “Don’t be the first to chase us about bribes when we did not bribe … There is sovereignty and patriotism. We cannot be the first on the march to attack our own country. I know it sounds patronising but it is not. I must say don’t attack your own country. I’m saying state the facts and follow what needs to be followed.”
Related: Sepp Blatter linked with US inquiry as Interpol issues alert for Fifa executives – live updatesRelated: Sepp Blatter linked with US inquiry as Interpol issues alert for Fifa executives – live updates
South Africa were awarded the 2010 World Cup in 2004 ahead of Morocco, but the US indictment released by America’s department of justice last week alleged that: “a high-ranking Fifa official caused payments … totalling $10m – to be wired from a Fifa account in Switzerland to a Bank of America correspondent account in New York … controlled by Jack Warner”.
Warner was then president of Concacaf and the US indictment alleges that the $10m payment made through Fifa channels resulted in three members of the organisation’s executive committee voting in favour of the World Cup being awarded to South Africa.
Mbalula told a press conference in Johannesburg: “The South African government and local organising committee has not paid any bribe to anyone to secure the rights to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup. We will approach the United States authorities through the diplomatic channels to share with us the indictment and any information that they have to enable us to study the facts carefully and to take appropriate action.
“We frown upon allegations that suggest that South Africa has paid a bribe. We also clarify that payments made for approved projects can never be construed as bribery and that any insinuation to the contrary will be met with our rebuke.
“The fact that a payment of $10m was made to an approved programme above board, does not equate to bribery. Those that allege should prove the allegations. We have never been spokespersons for Fifa and do not intend to speak on behalf of Fifa.
“We wish to categorically deny that our country and government bribed anyone to secure the rights for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. We wish to indicate that as the current minister had noted the payment of the $10m in the indictment was not through government coffers or the local organising committee. I can today unequivocally state for all to know that this payment was not a bribe.”
The Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, this week denied responsibility for the $10m payment, writing in an email to the New York Times that he did not authorise the payment and did not have the power to do so. Fifa said the transaction was executed by the finance committee chairman Julio Grondona, who died last year.
However, on a dramatic day just hours before Blatter’s resignation announcement, a letter emerged from the South African Football Association in 2008 that was addressed specifically to Valcke and contained detailed information about how the payment should be processed.
The letter from Safa president Molefi Oliphant to Valcke read: “In view of the decision by the South African government that an amount of USD 10m from the organising committee’s future operational budget funding and thereafter advances the amount to the Diaspora Legacy Programme. In addition, Safa requests that the Diaspora Legacy Programme be administered and implemented directly by the president of Concacaf who shall act as a fiduciary of the fund.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Interpol issued red notices, otherwise known as international wanted persons alerts, for Warner, Nicolás Leoz, the former Fifa executive committee member and Conmebol president, and four sports marketing executives for charges including racketeering conspiracy and corruption.
A statement said: “At the request of US authorities, Interpol Red Notices – or international wanted persons alerts – have been issued for two former Fifa officials and four corporate executives for charges including racketeering conspiracy and corruption.”
The others named on the wanted person alert are Alejandro Burzaco, an Argentinian national and a controlling principal of Torneos y Competencias, Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis, also both Argentinian and controlling principals of Full Play Group, and José Margulies, who is Brazilian.