A former Fifa boss has admitted bribes were paid to senior officials to vote for the 2010 and 1998 World Cups, as a former vice-president of football’s world governing body announced he would reveal “secrets” about the scandal.
Plea bargain details published by the US Department of Justice revealed Chuck Blazer admitted he and others took bribes totalling $10 million for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup and an undisclosed sum for Morocco's unsuccessful bid to host the 1998 tournament.
Hours after the details were revealed Jack Warner, who was among 14 key figures charged with corruption by US authorities last week, said he had documents linking Fifa officials, including embattled outgoing president Sepp Blatter, to the 2010 election in Trinidad and Tobago.
Mr Warner, who has been declared an 'international wanted person' by Interpol, made the allegations after paying for a political broadcast slot on TV in his native Trinidad.
He suggested his life was in danger and said: “I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country.”
He later told a rally of his Independent Liberal Party: "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming. The die is cast. There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall. Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do."
Meanwhile, Australian police said they are investigating corruption claims surrounding Warner and Australia’s failed bid for the 2022 World Cup.
The news came after Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy defended his group's payment of 500,000 Australian dollars to the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), the regional football federation in North America.
Lowy claims the money was “misappropriated” by Warner, the then president of Concacaf.
Australia spent millions of pounds trying to clinch hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, but received just one vote when Qatar secured the rights in December 2010.
The revelations come little more than 24 hours after Blatter finally announced he would be standing down as Fifa president.
Blazer, the former Concacaf general secretary and Fifa executive committee member, said in his testimony published on Wednesday night: “I and others on the Fifa executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup.”
He was said to have travelled with Warner to Morocco in 1992 where they agreed to take a bribe to vote for the country for the 1998 World Cup, a tournament which France went on to host.
