THE 2010 WORLD CUP BID COMPANY NEVER APPROVED THE PAYMENT OF ANY BRIBES TO JACK WARNER OR ANYONE ELSE

Like most – if not all – South Africans, I find the corruption scandal that has engulfed the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) and enmeshed our hosting of the 2010 World Cup deeply embarrassing. This terrible saga has a real potential to overshadow what was, without doubt, our crowning moment as a democratic South Africa.

My pain is deepened by the fact that, unlike most of my compatriots, I was one of those who were intimately involved in efforts to win South Africa the great privilege of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I am terribly pained by the fact that what was meant to be our brightest day in the global sun is slowly being turned into a curse of potentially gargantuan proportions, with the possibility that the 2010 World Cup may, in years to come, be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

While we should be very concerned about the raging controversy and the alleged corruption that has engulfed FIFA, we should not allow our wonderful memories of the 2010 World Cup to be sullied. Personally, I refuse to allow so glorious an occasion to be reduced to an event of which we should be ashamed.

However, we should be very concerned about the serious allegations that have been made against South Africa and two as-yet-unnamed individuals who are alleged to have been involved in bribery. Was there any malfeasance in our bid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup? That is a question that we should confront head on. Should there ultimately turn out to have been any whiff of scandal attendant to our winning the rights to host that World Cup, then we will have no choice but to hang our heads in collective shame.

As it may be recalled, South Africa lost the bid for the 2006 World Cup to Germany by a soul-crashing single vote in 2000, thanks to Oceania delegate Charles Dempsey’s abstention despite a mandate from his football association for him to vote for South Africa. Like most – if not all – South Africans, the group for which I worked at the time, Independent Newspapers South Africa, was shattered by the narrow defeat. It mobilised the public to sign a petition to be sent to FIFA headquarters in Zurich, asking for the vote to be re-taken.

As the Editor of the Daily News at the time, the newspaper group designated me to be the public face of that campaign, and I participated in various television interviews, articulating the group’s concerns and giving updates on the petition. Needless to say, our efforts amounted to naught. As things turned out, all we managed to do was to give bitterly disappointed South Africans a much-needed opportunity to vent their pent-up emotions.

Although Dempsey subsequently gave his reasons for his abstention, only he knows whether they were true or if there was more than met the eye. Regrettably, he has since gone the way of all flesh and is not around to answer any further questions. Certainly, there would be a lot more interest in hearing from him now, at the height of the scandal that has engulfed FIFA.

Subsequent to the controversy that followed our marginal loss to Germany, FIFA resolved that the 2010 World Cup would take place in Africa, with only countries on the continent to compete among themselves to host it. It was when South Africa decided to bid for it again that I had a more direct involvement with the bid. By then I had left journalism and was employed as Vice-President for Corporate Affairs at Anglo American, with a responsibility for marketing. My primary responsibility at the company was finding a way to get it to reconnect emotionally with South Africa, the country of its birth.

In search of a property with which to associate the powerful Anglo American brand, and aware of the power of football, early in 2003 I approached then Premier Soccer League (PSL) CEO Trevor Phillips and then South African Football Association (SAFA) CEO Danny Jordaan respectively to discuss the possibility of an Anglo American sponsorship. I had a good meeting with Phillips, but Jordaan informed me, during our meeting, that SAFA had decided to have another go at the World Cup and was looking for sponsors for the bid. With the company’s support, I seized on the opportunity for Anglo American to come on board as the first sponsor of the 2010 World Cup Bid.

To allay any concerns that main sponsors may have about corporate governance, they were each entitled to a seat on the Board of the 2010 Bid Company. Anglo American CEO Anthony Trahar designated then Deputy Finance Director Norman Mbazima as the company’s main representative on the Board, with me as his alternate. However, throughout the existence of the 2010 Bid Company, I was the company’s primary representative and main spokesman on that board, with Mbazima attending a handful of meetings. On that glorious day on 15 May 2004, when South Africa was announced as the host of the 2010 World Cup, then Anglo American South Africa CEO Lazarus Zim and I were in that hall in Zurich, Switzerland.

As a very active member of the Board of the 2010 Bid Company who was involved in shuttle diplomacy to ensure that the SAFA leadership worked as a team and was the most outspoken person on corporate governance, I can state categorically that no 2010 Bid Company Board meeting that I attended ever discussed or approved the payment of bribes to secure the 2010 World Cup. Had any such discussion ever taken place, I would have opposed it most vehemently both in my name and in Anglo American’s name. Neither Anglo American nor I would ever countenance, let alone tolerate, any payment of bribes.

Anglo American worked very hard to help South Africa win the right to host the 2010 World Cup. In addition to making its corporate jet available for the FIFA inspection team to travel in when it was in South Africa, the company also made it possible for me to travel extensively with 2010 Bid Company CEO Danny Jordaan to campaign for South Africa in those countries where Anglo American had a presence and FIFA Executive Committee Members lived, such as Tunisia, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

Then Anglo American South Africa CEO Lazarus Zim and I also travelled to Botswana to ask FIFA Executive Committee member Ishmael Bhamjee to vote for South Africa, and then FNB Marketing Director Derek Carstens and I accompanied Jordaan to Spain to entice Barcelona FC and Real Madrid FC to come to South Africa to play exhibition matches against the country’s premier teams to show off our preparedness to host the World Cup, to coincide with the presence in the country of the FIFA inspection team. Regrettably, neither team was available, and Britain’s Tottenham Hotspur ended up being the substitute.

However, close to the announcement of the winning bid, at one meeting in Sandton, the Board was informed that Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) President Jack Warner had asked the 2010 Bid Company to pledge to contribute funds for football development in his region or country in return for votes. Deeply uncomfortable about the request, I spoke out most strongly against it, as did other board members, especially those representing sponsors. (There was no Government representation on the 2010 Bid Company Board.)

In addition to the valid governance concerns that we had, there was also the fact that the 2010 Bid Company’s budget was hardly enough to cover its bidding business, with subsequent requests made to sponsors for additional funding to enable it to executive its mandate. Requests like Warner’s could neither be entertained nor covered by that budget.  

In the end, the Board turned down Warner’s reported request, and that was the last time that I heard about it – until the arrest two weeks ago of some FIFA leaders attending the last FIFA congress in Zurich. Any subsequent approval of a $10 million legacy project donation to CONCACAF would have been done either by the Government or the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee, of which the original bidding sponsors were not part.

As far as I know, I never missed any meeting of the 2010 Bid Company Board. I also attended the last Board meeting in Woodmead, after we had been awarded the rights to host the 2010 World Cup, where a resolution to dissolve the company and donate its assets to SAFA was approved.

The full story of South Africa’s bid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is contained in Kaizer Nyatsumba’s book, Incomplete Without My Brother, Adonis.  

 Posted on: 9th June 2015 | Author: Kaizer Nyatsumba