The Feds aren’t letting up
The latest reports in the New York Times will make uncomfortable reading for Fifa president Sepp Blatter.
The newspaper that broke the story of last week’s arrests of top Fifa officials as part of an ongoing corruption investigation by the FBI has now linked the bribery scandal to the organisation’s top official, secretary general Jerome Valcke.
Valcke is named in court papers filed in New York as the ‘high-ranking Fifa official’ responsible for the transfer of $10million to bank accounts controlled by then Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, funds which form the key pillar of the investigation into the awarding of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
Valcke is a key ally of Blatter’s and his potential involvement with these transfers would cast even further doubt on the recently re-elected president’s claims that he was unaware of any wrongdoing.
Fifa released a statement this morning acknowledging the payment of the $10million, labelling it a donation on behalf of South Africa to ‘to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries’, and insisted that Valcke had no part in the project.
UPDATE: No sooner had Fifa denied Valcke’s involvement with the money, a letter from the South African FA emerged purporting to show precisely the opposite
BOMBSHELL: Letter from South Africa FA to FIFA instructing $10m payment to Warner WAS addressed to Jerome Valcke pic.twitter.com/b0yKBPRAcA
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) June 2, 2015
Although Fifa are still fighting back:
FIFA react to letter: "The letter is consistent to our statement where we underlined that the FIFA Finance Committee made the final approval
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) June 2, 2015
