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Australian police are investigating corruption claims dogging the nation’s failed World Cup bid as the first of FIFA’s crooked king-pins falls in court.
Australian Federal Police confirmed on Thursday an investigation into aspects of Australia’s $46 million bid to host the 2022 cup, which gained just one vote in a process unexpectedly won by Qatar.
The AFP says it will evaluate allegations of a payment from Football Federation Australia to a then-FIFA executive, who is among 14 people arrested on corruption charges linked to soccer’s world governing body.
The FFA says it paid $500,000 to CONCACAF which was stolen by Jack Warner, the chief of the north and central American football association.
Warner made a televised address in his native Trinidad on Wednesday night, saying he will prove a link between soccer’s governing body and his nation’s elections in 2010.
“I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country,” Warner said.
He added, in what was a paid political advertisement, that: “I reasonably actually fear for my life.”
Warner also said that when he heard of FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s shock resignation announcement four days after being re-elected, he wrote him to urge his immediate departure from FIFA.
“Blatter knows why he fell. And if anyone else knows, I do,” Warner added cryptically.
The development came as the first of the 14 FIFA-connected officials who were arrested last week appeared in court on corruption charges.
Chuck Blazer, the face of North American soccer for two decades, admitted in court testimony he conspired with fellow FIFA executives to accept bribes during the process to choose hosts for the 1998 and 2010 World Cups.
The bearded multi-millionaire pleaded guilty to racketeering, part of a massive US corruption case targeting world football’s governing body.
Blazer’s testimony is a key plank in the US investigation against FIFA, which the federal court document describes as a “racketeering influenced corrupt organisation.”
On Wednesday, the 70-year-old Blazer admitted to a raft of charges related to his leadership of the North and Central American soccer body CONCACAF and membership of FIFA’s executive committee.
He is awaiting sentencing and may be called to testify in the trials of other sports executives.
The most serious charge, racketeering, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Blazer was among those arrested last week, with further charges set to follow from a US investigation.
US media report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now looking into Blatter’s role as FIFA president in the tens of millions of dollars of bribes given to football officials.
Blatter shocked the football world on Tuesday by announcing that he was resigning, just four days after he was re-elected to his position.
The 79-year-old Swiss official has denied any wrongdoing.
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