Skip to content

Sepp Blatter 'discussed $10m with South Africa president'

Sepp Blatter FIFA
Image: Sepp Blatter: Discussed $10m with South Africa president, a leaked email and letter suggest

Sepp Blatter discussed the $10m payment at the centre of the FIFA 'bribe' scandal with South Africa's then President Thabo Mbeki, a leaked email and letter suggest.

The email, seen by Sky Sports News HQ, was sent by FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke to South Africa's then deputy finance minister Jabu Moleketi in December 2007.

In it, Valcke is chasing up the $10m payment and writes: "I haven't received confirmation yet. More importantly I would like to know when the transfer is going to be done."

He reminds Moleketi that the plan was "based on a discussion between FIFA and the South African government and also between our President and HE President M'Beki."

More from Fifa Crisis

The letter was leaked to South Africa's Sunday Times and was sent three months earlier, in September 2007, again by Valcke.

In it, Valcke asks the South African government to send the $10m direct to FIFA, adding that football's governing body would then distribute the money in the Caribbean for a legacy programme aimed at the African diaspora.

Less than six months later however, the $10m is known to have been sent direct from a FIFA account to disgraced former CONCACAF president and ex-FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.  

Responding to the latest revelations, FIFA said the letter and email "do not prove that Mr Blatter and Mr Valcke are involved."

The bidding process for the 2010 World Cup is coming under increased scrutiny, with the key question being whether that $10m payment was in fact a bribe from the South Africans for Warner’s support. 

Around Sky