The warning comes mere hours after a legal papers were filed in New York by FIFA claiming that 41 former FIFA officials and marketing executives took bribes and stole money from football’s governing body. A legal source at FIFA said it could reclaim up to $190m (£135m).
Jordaan, who led South Africa’s successful 2010 FIFA World Cup bid is also the ANC mayor of Port Elizabeth. Local news agencies say they contacted his office but were told to speak to the executive head of SAFA. He was not immediately available.
The DA’s DA Shadow Minister of Sports and Recreation, Solly Malatsi, says his party has noted “with concern” the reports that FIFA has confirmed that South Africa did indeed pay a bribe of $10 million to the bid committee to have the 2010 Soccer World Cup held in South Africa.
He will seek an urgent report from South African law enforcement agencies as to the progress of the investigation into Jordaan, and the then President of SAFA, Molefi Oliphant, who are being implicated in the scandal. The DA has already laid charges against Jordaan and Oliphant. These include fraud as well as corruption under Section 3 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004.
Jordaan has recently been criticised for shunning his duties as SAFA president by not attending important FIFA meetings. The South Africa website reports some people have suggested he is hiding from his duties – and authorities.
In the most recent allegations court papers says bribes were paid to Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice president and former CONCACAF president, Jeffrey Webb, the former FIFA vice president and former CONCACAF president, and Chuck Blazer, the former CONCACAF general secretary. The money went through FIFA’s accounts and was disguised as development money for Caribbean football.
According to FIFA, “it is now apparent that multiple members of the executive committee abused their positions and sold their votes on multiple occasions”.
The DA says given the seriousness of the allegations “we are hopeful that domestic law enforcement will finally act in this regard and provide a progress report on these charges. To date they have shown little interest in holding the relevant authorities to account that is why we will also be submitting parliamentary questions in pursuance of the full truth in this regard.
“ South Africans and the rest of the world deserve to know who made the decision to pay the $10m as a bribe and whether or not government fully aware from the onset that the $10m transaction was a bribe masquerading as funds for the African Diaspora.
Jordaan did not attend the recent election of Gianni Infantino as its new president of FIFA and also missed a previous important FIFA meeting in Switzerland. At the time it was rumoured that investigators were using the meetings to corner and question officials. The SAFA president’s “conspicuous absenteeism in Zurich” raised several eyebrows.
In a statement earlier today Infantino said: “The defendants diverted this money not just from FIFA but from players, coaches and fans worldwide who benefit from the programmes that FIFA runs to develop and promote football. These dollars were meant to build football fields, not mansions and pools; to buy football kits, not jewellery and cars; and to fund youth player and coach development, not to underwrite lavish lifestyles for football and sports marketing executives.”
