S.Africa football chief denies paying World Cup bribe

Johannesburg (AFP) - A South African football official on Sunday admitted the country had paid out $10 million dollars in 2008 but denied that it was in any way a bribe to FIFA for the 2010 World Cup.

"How could we have paid a bribe for votes four years after we had won the bid?" president of the South African Football Association (SAFA)Danny Jordaan told South Africa's Sunday Independent.

"I haven't paid a bribe or taken a bribe from anybody in my life. We don't know who is mentioned there (in the indictment)," he added.

A US indictment says that in 2008 a FIFA official authorised the payment of $10 million -- an alleged bribe from South Africa for the World Cup -- through a FIFA account to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner.

According to the indictment bundles of cash in a briefcase were earlier allegedly handed over at a Paris hotel as a bribe by a "high-ranking South African bid committee official". The cash was later handed over to Warner.

Jordaan, who was president of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, said the $10 million payment was made to the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

The payment, he said, was South Africa's contribution towards Concacaf's football development fund. Warner was Concacaf's president at the time.

Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula, who had already criticised US authorities for acting without consulting with South Africa, on Sunday angrily refuted the allegations.

"We frown upon any insinuations made in the indictment by the US authorities that suggest that the government of South Africa or any of its citizens have been involved in any wrongdoing without substantiating the allegations, let alone naming the alleged co-conspirators," he said in a statement.

"We refuse to allow the reputation of our republic to be tarnished unduly without affording the republic and its citizens an opportunity to respond to any allegations made. We view this as an attack on our sovereignty," added the minister.

Thabo Mbeki, who was president when South Africa won the bid in 2004, becoming the first African country to host the event, has also denied that a bribe had been paid by his government.

"I am not aware of anybody who solicited a bribe from the government for the purpose of our country being awarded the right to host the World Cup," he said in statement earlier this week, adding "no public money was ever used to pay a bribe."

He said his government would "never have paid any bribe even if it were solicited."

Jordaan, who was president of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, said the $10 million payment was made to the confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

The payment, he said, was South Africa's contribution towards Concacaf's football development fund. Warner was Concacaf's president at the time.