Report: FIFA's Jerome Valcke authorized payment of $10m in bribes for 2010 World Cup in South Africa

Sepp Blatter (L) and Jerome Valcke are the highest ranking officials in FIFA

A huge development took place in the investigation of the FIFA scandal when it came to light that the world football governing body’s secretary general Jérôme Valcke had authorized a payment of $10 million in 2008 to Jack Warner who was a FIFA official at the time. The $10m payment has been considered a bribe to ensure that South Africa would secure the 2010 World Cup hosting rights.

Warner had resigned from FIFA in 2011 but was indicted last week and charged by the United States Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise with allegations of bribery amounting to more than $150m. The $10m was wired to accounts controlled by Warner who then went on to divert it to his personal accounts. Three wire transfers between January and March 2008 have come to light.

FIFA had earlier revealed that it was Julio Grondona who had authorized the transactions. Grondona was the chairman of FIFA’s finance committee at the time. But Grondona died in 2014 aged 82 after serving FIFA for 26 years. He was also a “lifelong friend” of Sepp Blatter.

But according to the report in The New York Times, the secretary general is the “high-ranking FIFA official” who authorized the payment. To tighten the noose on Valcke and FIFA, evidence has emerged which shows that the South African Football Association’s president Molefi Oliphant had sent Valcke a letter with the $10m payment being the main subject.

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

Valcke is yet to be accused of authorizing the bribe or even being involved. Valcke himself has said that neither did he authorize any payment nor does he have the power to do so.

FIFA’s statement on the $10million payment

FIFA had earlier reacted to the claims made by US authorities with a statement which said:

In 2007, as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, the South African Government approved a USD 10m project to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries as part of the World Cup legacy. At the request of the South African Government, and in agreement with the South African Football Association (SAFA), FIFA was asked to process the project’s funding by withholding USD 10m from the Local Organising Committee’s (LOC) operational budget and using that to finance the Diaspora Legacy Programme. SAFA instructed FIFA that the Diaspora Legacy Programme should be administered and implemented directly by the President of CONCACAF who at that time was Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee and who should act as the fiduciary of the Diaspora Legacy Programme Fund of USD 10m. The payments totalling USD 10m were authorised by the then chairman of the Finance Committee and executed in accordance with the Organisation Regulations of FIFA. FIFA did not incur any costs as a result of South Africa’s request because the funds belonged to the LOC. Both the LOC and SAFA adhered to the necessary formalities for the budgetary amendment. Neither the Secretary General Jérôme Valcke nor any other member of FIFA’s senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the above project.

But with this letter coming to light, it is possible that Valcke was directly involved as the trail leads closer to Sepp Blatter himself. Valcke himself does not have a good reputation. He was sacked in December 2006 when he was the marketing director after he lied about sponsorship deals with Visa and MasterCard.