FIFA corruption scandal rocks South Africa FA

South African football has been thrown into turmoil amid allegations that local officials paid more than $10 million in bribes to secure the rights to host the 2010 World Cup.
This allegation came into the open through a U.S. Justice Department indictment, which claimed the bribe was handed over in a briefcase stuffed with stacks of banknotes.
U.S. Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, said executives from world football’s governing body FIFA took the bribes, but she failed to disclose who the South African officials are.
Both “accomplices” mentioned in indictment identified only as “accomplice 15” and “accomplice 16” was part of the South African World Cup bidding committee.
The department believed former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner cultivated close ties with South African football officials from the early 2000s.
Meanwhile, Warner has been arrested and is currently in jail in Trinidad.
Several other high-ranking FIFA officials, who were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, on corruption charges on Wednesday, now face extradition to the U.S.
Swiss authorities, who raided FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich on Wednesday, confirmed that they were also investigating the last two awarded World Cup bids to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
South Africa became the first African nation to host the quadrennial football showpiece after losing the rights to host the 2006 edition to Germany, following a controversial voting process.
The government on Thursday denied any wrongdoing over the allegations.
“When we concluded the FIFA World Cup here in South Africa we got a clean audit report.
“There has never been any suggestion that anything untoward happened in South Africa,’’ Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told reporters.
Following the successful hosting of the 2010 World Cup, South Africa’s bid committee was awarded one the country’s highest accolades for exceptional contribution to the world of sport.
The order of Ikhamanga in Gold was granted by President Jacob Zuma for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports for securing the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Report says South African Football Association President, Danny Jordaan, who is widely credited for securing South Africa the rights to host the tournament, was endorsed as the Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
However, analyst Stephen Grootes said Jordaan’s “reputation, his dignity, his very being, is going to be sullied” by the scandal.