Ailing former FIFA official Chuck Blazer has admitted that he and others accepted bribes before the votes that gave the 1998 World Cup to France and the 2010 World Cup to South Africa.
According to newly unsealed US court documents. Blazer confessed to taking bribes in connection with the votes on the two World Cup hosts, according to a transcript released on Wednesday of his November 2013 plea hearing in a closed Brooklyn federal courtroom.
His guilty plea was kept secret until the 27th of May, apparently allowing him to testify before a US grand jury against some of the nine FIFA officials and five others indicted last week in the United States in an investigation of bribery and corruption in the world football organization.
The latest corruption scandal to sweep FIFA led to President Sepp Blatter announcing his resignation on Tuesday night.
At a packed media briefing at SAFA house in Johannesburg on Wednesday, SA Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula dismissed allegations that a $10-million payment to the Caribbean Football Union was a bribe in their successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup.
