Letter implicates Valcke after Fifa clears him of $10m wrongdoing

The under-fire administration has claimed its secretary-general Jerome Valcke had no role in a $10m legacy payment, only for correspondence addressed to him to be released.A letter implicating Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke in a suspect $10 million payment has been released only hours after the world football governing body had attempted to clear the Frenchman of any wrongdoing.Reports in the United States had claimed Valcke to have made the $10m transfer to former Fifa vice-president and Concacaf president Jack Warner, only for Fifa to release a statement insisting the late Julio Grondona handled the matter relating to a legacy project on the governing body's behalf as part of his role as Finance Committee chairman.The payments totalling $10m were authorised by the then chairman of the Finance Committee and executed in accordance with the Organisation Regulations of Fifa," said the statement.
Fifa did not incur any costs as a result of South Africa’s request because the funds belonged to the LOC. Both the LOC (Local Organising Committee) and SAFA (South African Football Association) adhered to the necessary formalities for the budgetary amendment.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.But now a letter from the South African Football Association (SAFA) addressed to Valcke has been released, suggesting the secretary-general had some knowledge of the proposed payments.The letter, signed by then-SAFA president Molefi Oliphant, asks Valcke to withhold $10m of the 2010 World Cup Local Organising Committee's operational budget and advance the fee to the Diaspora Legacy programme. From there, the Diaspora Legacy fund would be administered by Warner.The 72-year-old Trinidadian is one of 14 people recently indicted by the US Department of Justice on charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering.