FIFA says Valcke not involved in $10 million payment

By Brian Homewood ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA denied on Tuesday that Jérôme Valcke, the top lieutenant of its President Sepp Blatter, was involved in $10 million in bank transactions at the heart of a U.S. bribery investigation against the world soccer body, despite the publication of a letter to Valcke outlining the payment. Secretary general Valcke had no role in the payments, which were authorised by the chairman of FIFA's Finance Committee, it said in a statement. The chairman of the committee at the time of the payments was Argentina's Julio Grondona, who died last year. "Neither the Secretary General Jerome Valcke nor any other member of FIFA's senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the above project," FIFA said. As new questions arose in the FIFA corruption scandal, more officials were arrested, suspended or banned on Monday, and countries were weighing a World Cup boycott amid controversy over the re-election of Blatter on Friday. A person familiar with the matter said on Monday that U.S. prosecutors believe Valcke made the $10 million bank transactions. Valcke is described in an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, as an unidentified "high-ranking FIFA official" who in 2008 transferred the sum to another FIFA official, Jack Warner. Valcke's alleged connection to the case was first reported by The New York Times. It said Valcke had written in an email to the newspaper that he neither had authorized the payment nor had the power to do so. FIFA's statement said that, in 2007, as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the South African government approved a $10 million project to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries. FIFA was asked to process the project’s funding by withholding $10 million from the local organising committee’s (LOC) operational budget in South Africa and using that to finance the diaspora legacy programme. The South African Football Association (SAFA) instructed FIFA that the legacy programme should be administered and implemented directly by the then President of CONCACAF, Jack Warner, "who should act as the fiduciary of the Diaspora Legacy Programme Fund of $10 million". It added: "FIFA did not incur any costs ... (and) both the LOC and SAFA adhered to the necessary formalities for the budgetary amendment." CONCACAF governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean. South Africa's sports minister, Fikile Mbakule, has denied that his government paid $10 million to anyone as a bribe. After the FIFA statement, Britain's Press Association published on Twitter what is said was a copy of a letter sent by SAFA to FIFA, and addressed to Valcke, requesting a transfer of $10 million to the "diaspora legacy programme". However, FIFA replied in a further statement to Reuters: "There is nothing new. The letter is consistent to our statement where we underlined that the FIFA Finance Committee made the final approval. "In general, the FIFA Secretary General is the recipient of all letters and requests to the administration and acts in accordance with FIFA's regulations. "We would like to reiterate that neither the Secretary General Jérôme Valcke nor any other member of FIFA's senior management were involved in the initiation, approval and implementation of the Diaspora project." Warner, a former FIFA vice president, is among 14 FIFA officials and corporate executives charged by the U.S. Department of Justice last Wednesday with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes. Warner left jail in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday after he was granted bail, according to local media. (Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; Editing by John O'Brien, John Stonestreet and Giles Elgood)