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International Football

South Africa Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula Calls For FIFA To Retract Bribery Accusations

South Africa Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said that FIFA "should retract its statement that a bribe was paid when South Africa won the right to host the 2010 World Cup," according to the AP. Mbalula claimed that the FBI indictment and criminal investigations were "littered with explosive contradictions." He asked how FIFA could "miraculously" turn from being the subject of the FBI's investigations to a victim of its own actions. He said, "The failure of football's governing body to regulate its own officials, as it has indicated in its press release, cannot be placed at the doorstep of South Africa and its people. It has inflicted reputational damage of monumental proportions on this country and we believe that FIFA must retract its statement" (AP, 3/17). REUTERS' Gleeson & Said wrote Mbalula on Thursday denied that his country had paid a $10M bribe "to help it win the right to host the World Cup in 2010." Mbalula: "South Africa did not pay any bribe nor did it illegally obtain the right to host the World Cup." FIFA said on Wednesday that "it would seek restitution in U.S. courts from former FIFA executive committee members who have been accused in U.S. indictments" of having accepted $10M in bribes in return for supporting World Cup bids. Mbalula said, "We paid money to a legacy project in the African diaspora in the Caribbean." He added that "the money had been intended for a legitimate project and had been paid to the Caribbean Football Union by FIFA on South Africa's behalf." Mbalula acknowledged that "there had been no subsequent oversight of the project, which was never launched." He said, "We were taken aback by those developments, but we put no measures in place to follow up because the key was going to a FIFA institution." He said that he would ask to meet new FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the next weeks "to explain the background of FIFA's decision to seek restitution." Mbalula: "We did not bribe. We did everything according to the book. But if others were found to have bribed, then let them explain" (REUTERS, 3/17).

TEIXEIRA TO SUE
: REUTERS' Andrew Downie wrote the former head of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Ricardo Teixeira, said that he "has promised to sue FIFA for damages after it accused him of misappropriating" more than $3M. FIFA has said Teixeira should pay back at least $3.5M "in compensation, per diems, travel, and other costs, denied the charge of misappropriation." Teixeira: "I am going to sue them for moral damages in Zurich. They throw this thing in the air. I don't know anything about this suit against me, this unreasonable request" (REUTERS, 3/16).

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