South Africa’s successful World Cup bid "came under further scrutiny" on Thursday as the country’s organized and serious crime unit said that "it was investigating bribery allegations" connected to the '10 tournament host, according to Teddy Cutler of the LONDON TIMES. Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, the unit’s spokesperson, confirmed that "a file had been opened, though any decision to open a full investigation would depend on the weight of evidence discovered." Mulaudzi said, "There are investigators looking into the matter." He added that South African investigators "were prepared to work with the FBI if required." No specific officials are being investigated at present, and Mulaudzi "denied reports that appeared to implicate" 2010 World Cup organizer and South African FA President Danny Jordaan (LONDON TIMES, 6/4). The AP reported Mulaudzi said that "the unit would decide whether the information provided by an opposition political party merited a full investigation." He "would not describe the contents of the documents that his Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation received from the Freedom Front Plus political party." Mulaudzi said that there "had been no contact between South Africa's unit, known as the Hawks, and the FBI yet." Jennifer Rautenbach, a legal adviser for the Freedom Front Plus, said that it wanted South Africa's sports ministry, the SAFA and those involved in the World Cup bid "to be investigated." She said that the party "would also be handing over more documents to police" (AP, 6/4). BLOOMBERG's Franz Wild wrote Tokyo Sexwale, a member of the organizing committee for South Africa’s World Cup in '10, questioned whether a $10M payment to the Caribbean Football Union "was used properly." Sexwale, a member of FIFA’s anti-racism and anti-discrimination task force and its media committee, said, "The question is did the money go to the right place? Who did it go to?" Sexwale "agreed with the rationale for the payment" and said that Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president, believed that South Africa "was representing the continent in holding the World Cup." Sexwale: "It was well-known at the time that this is not just a South African World Cup. Everybody, even Mandela, said it’s an African World Cup and there was the addition of Africans who are elsewhere. It was a noble thing, there’s nothing wrong with that" (BLOOMBERG, 6/4).
FFA TO FIGHT: In Sydney, Sebastian Hassett wrote Football Federation Australia is adamant the A$500,000 "it spent on a development in Trinidad before the 2022 World Cup bid vote was never intended to end up in disgraced" ex-CONCACAF President Jack Warner's pockets -- and it said it will continue to fight for its return. Disgruntled over the perception it tried to pay Warner directly in exchange for his vote in Dec. '10 -- "which failed in any case given he voted for Qatar, which ultimately won the rights" -- FFA has made public the check that shows it paid the money into the CONCACAF account on Sept. 16, 2010. FFA also said that "the money came from its account, and not the federal government's funding allocation," because at the point it had decided to pay the A$500,000, less than three months before the vote, it would have "taken too long to extract the money" from the government coffers (SMH, 6/4). Also in Sydney, Andrew Webster opined Rod Allen was FFA's public affairs manager "for the 10 months leading up to and including the failed and now controversial bid for the 2022 World Cup." I will not "be so presumptuous to quote 'Rocket,' but he reported over a quiet beer that it was clear from the moment the bid team arrived in Zurich that Australia had little chance of hosting the World Cup in 2022 or the foreseeable future." Deals "were being struck between shady characters right there, in front of each other." The seedy machinations "were there for all to see." He said that "we never had a chance" and that the "whole thing stunk." And now with Blatter poised to stand down, and with Interpol issuing alerts for other corrupt FIFA officials, "we are starting to fathom just how much" (SMH, 6/4).
