The opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Reports have emerged that this should have happened in Morocco, not in South Africa.
Image: BBC Sport.
As the FIFA crisis deepens, more absurd and dramatic claims are beginning to emerge. One of the revelations is that the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup was won by Morocco rather than South Africa, who became the eventual hosts. In addition, there are claims that former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki and the disgraced FIFA President, Sepp Blatter actually discussed the $10 million bribe that is claimed to have been paid.
This emerged as the The Sunday Times published an email which it claims was written by the then FIFA Secretary General, Jerome Valcke in which he sought to find out when the money would be transferred. The email, which is dated December 7, 2007, is said to have been directed at the former Deputy minister of finance, Jabu Moleketi and it contained the statement, “I would like to find out when the transfer can be done.” While the email does not mention the $10 million, it also refers to an earlier discussion between the respective presidents of both FIFA and South Africa. When confronted with the email, the spokesperson for former president, Mbeki, Mukoni Ratshitanga would not be drawn into commenting on the ‘discussion’ about the bribe but referred the AFP to the statement that was released by Mr Mbeki last week in which he said he was not aware of anyone who had solicited a bribe from his government for the purposes of ensuring that South Africa won the bid to host the world soccer showcase. Ratshitanga said that the position of the former president had not changed on the matter. According to Mbeki’s government, the money they had paid at the time was what they believed to be genuinely for the development of soccer in the Carribean.
Additional information that has just been obtained is that the right to host the 2010 soccer event was won by Morocco and that the buying of votes had ensured that the soccer spectacle would be hosted by South Africa. According to the Sunday Times, as part of its investigations into the conduct of FIFA Officials, they had obtained tapes in which a FIFA official revealed that Morocco had won the right to host the World Cup and that these tapes were handed over to FIFA and Blatter. However, the paper claims that nothing was done about these tapes. In addition, the paper alleges, the tapes also reveal that both the South African and the Moroccan officials had paid bribes in order to ensure that their respective countries won the hosting of the soccer showcase.
