File - Danny Jordaan speaks during a FIFA and Local Organizing Committee press conference, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in this Friday, June 12, 2009 file photo. In the letter published by the Mail and Guardian newspaper, Danny Jordaan, then head of South Africa’s World Cup organizing committee, says the money should be paid by FIFA, not the South African government.Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press
A South African newspaper on Friday published a 2007 letter linking the country's chief World Cup organizer to a $10-million (U.S.) payment made to projects linked to Jack Warner, then a FIFA executive and now a suspect in a corruption probe.
In the letter published by the Mail and Guardian newspaper, Danny Jordaan, then-head of South Africa's World Cup organizing committee, says the money should be paid by FIFA, not the South African government. U.S. investigators have accused unnamed South African officials of channelling $10-million through FIFA to Warner as a bribe for backing the country's successful World Cup bid.
The letter is addressed to FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke, with the subject line "US$10.0m promised by the South African government," and printed on a letterhead with the branding of the 2010 World Cup.
"Dear Jerome, Dear Friend," Mr. Jordaan wrote, "I want to suggest that FIFA deducts this amount (US$10.0m) from the LOC's [Local Organizing Committee] future operational budget and deals directly with the Diaspora legacy support programme."
The South African government has described the legacy program as projects aimed at developing soccer in countries recognized as the African diaspora, which includes Caribbean nations.
Mr. Jordaan tells Mr. Valcke that he has discussed the payment with then-South African deputy minister of finance Jabulani Moleketi and then-minister of foreign affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Mr. Jordaan, who is president of the South African Football Association (SAFA) and mayor of the city of Port Elizabeth, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Moleketi, who is no longer in government, referred The Associated Press to the South African sports ministry. Ms. Dlamini-Zuma is now the chairwoman of the African Union Commission.
South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has acknowledged the existence of Mr. Jordaan's letter, but says South Africa was not involved in bribery.
"We reject the Mail and Guardian article that frames an honest correspondence between SAFA and FIFA," Mr. Mbalula said in a statement.
The letter is part of communication that proved that South Africa donated funds to development projects in the Caribbean, Mr. Mbalula said.
In another letter published this week, former SAFA president Molefi Oliphant wrote to Mr. Valcke in March, 2008, asking FIFA to withhold $10-million from the budget of the 2010 World Cup organizers and to use the money to finance a "Diaspora Legacy Programme" under the control of Mr. Warner, then CONCACAF president.
Meanwhile, Canadian lawyer Dick Pound, who headed the investigation to clean up the International Olympic Committee after the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games corruption scandal, told Reuters on Friday that the FIFA crisis was worse than anything the IOC faced.
"I think it is deeper rooted and it is far more serious," Mr. Pound said in a telephone interview. "You are talking about corruption, bribes, money laundering, all sorts of stuff."
Mr. Pound noted that while criminal charges were brought against two people in the Salt Lake City bribery and corruption case but then dropped, FIFA's situation was "far more complex to try and sort out than ours was."
World soccer's governing body was plunged into the worst scandal in the organization's 111-year history on May 27 when Swiss police staged a dawn raid in Zurich and arrested several officials on charges filed by U.S. prosecutors in New York.
Mr. Pound knows something about cleaning up messes. The onetime Olympic swimmer and former influential IOC executive board member was appointed by then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch to clean up the organization and usher in sweeping reforms following the Salt Lake City scandal.
When the IOC was faced with a doping crisis that threatened to undermine the integrity of the Summer and Winter Games, Mr. Pound was once again called upon to establish and run the World Anti-Doping Agency.
With a report from Reuters