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Pressing Issues: Why Safa and government should applaud Fifa

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It all started with Fifa banning four former Safa officials for match-fixing.

An excited Safa immediately issued a statement “welcoming” the announcement.

However, the shoe was on the other foot when Fifa dropped a bombshell by announcing that their lawyers had handed a 22-page “Victim Statement and Request for Restitution” to the US attorney’s office as well as the US probation office for the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday.

On page 10, the document states: “Ultimately, given defendant [Jack] Warner’s strong illicit ties to the South Africa bid committee, the South Africans offered a more attractive bribe of $10 million (R152 million) in exchange
for Warner’s, [Chuck] Blazer’s and a third executive committee member’s votes.

“Warner and his co-conspirators lied to Fifa about the nature of the payment, disguising it as support money for the benefit of the ‘African diaspora’ in the Caribbean region, when in reality it was a bribe. They funnelled this bribe
money through the financial accounts of Fifa, member associations and the 2010 Fifa World Cup local organising committee.”

The paragraph ends: “They breached the fundamental duties they owed to Fifa, CFU [Caribbean Football Union], and Concacaf [Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football] and stole $10 million.”

Then that stinking stuff hit the fan.

Safa ran helter-skelter and were nowhere to be found as any inquiry was met with the terse reply: “Ask government, it was their project.”

Enter Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, who called a press conference this week. Disappointingly, all he said was a rehash of what he had stated in June last year: “The SA government maintains its position that the African Diaspora Legacy Programme was a legitimate programme of the ... government.

“The government will not apologise for this progressive stance to the African diaspora and for including the diaspora in the pride and honour of hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

To infer or insinuate anything else, including diminishing such an important part of the African continent’s history as an elaborate ruse to issue a bribe, is despicable.

“Government considers it an insult to reduce one of its hallmark programmes that recognised the struggles and achievements of African people around the world to a mere caricature and incubator for bribery,” Mbalula waxed on lyrically.

This has left me with two queries.

Query 1: South Africa decided to “donate” $10 million of their projected profit from hosting the 2010 World Cup to a Concacaf that had plush offices in Manhattan’s Trump Tower. This body counts the US, Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico among its 35 members.

Did Safa feel it would make so much money from the event that it could afford to play Father Christmas to such a region?

Query 2: If South Africa insists that the $10 million was a “donation”, should they not be joining Fifa in trying to recoup that money?

The reason Fifa is investigating is that it has been proven that the funds never reached any of the 35-member associations of Concacaf, but allegedly ended in the back pockets of Warner, Blazer and another executive committee member.

Fifa’s lawyers claim that under the (US) Mandatory Restitution to Victims Act, the organisation is “entitled to recover restitution”.

What’s more, US authorities have confirmed that $190 million has already been forfeited by the 39 individuals and two companies facing charges.

If I was part of Safa or our government, I would hug Fifa’s lawyers and new president Gianni Infantino because I would have nothing to
hide.

Imagine how much South African football would stand to benefit from that $10 million?

It’s not a sum to scoff at, unless they know something we don’t.

Follow me on Twitter @Sbu_Mseleku

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