A senior official of the Japan FA "denied allegations that it paid" $1.5M to the sport’s South American confederation for supporting its co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup, according to the AFP. JFA Honorary President Junji Ogura said, "It’s impossible." On Friday, Spanish sports daily Diario AS said that the JFA "paid the money to the South American football confederation, CONMEBOL, after it backed Japan’s co-hosting with South Korea of the 2002 event." The report "came amid deepening scandals" at FIFA. Fourteen of its officials or partners "have been charged as part of a corruption investigation" led by U.S. authorities. A source who worked at CONMEBOL for 15 years told the Spanish paper that then-JFA Honorary President Ken Naganuma "sent the money in 2000." He "has since died." Japan and South Korea "were chosen in 1996 as joint hosts of the 2002 event after fierce competition between the two nations." Ogura said that any such payment in '00 "would have been impossible since Japan had won the event four years earlier" (AFP, 6/21). KYODO reported the report went on to say, however, that "none of the funds were ever distributed," with $1.2M going instead into the private accounts of then-CONMEBOL President & FIFA ExCo member Nicolas Leoz (KYODO, 6/21).
