Football: I have proof of bribe, says top writer

Andrew Jennings has spent two decades trying to expose corruption at Fifa. Photo / AP

World-renowned investigator Andrew Jennings says he's got the documents to back the allegation former Oceania football boss Charlie Dempsey took a US$250,000 bribe.

Corruption journalist Jennings has spent two decades digging around world football body Fifa. He was also the man the FBI turned to for help in their corruption probe - the ongoing Federal investigation which exploded spectacularly in May when a dawn raid on a Zurich hotel saw seven Fifa officials arrested.

In his latest book, The Dirty Game: Uncovering the Scandal at Fifa, Jennings alleges the reason New Zealand and Oceania football boss Dempsey infamously abstained from a crucial 2000 vote to decide who would host the 2006 World Cup was because Dempsey took a US$250,000 bribe to swing the vote away from South Africa and to eventual hosts Germany.

Dempsey has admitted attempts were made to bribe him, but said he stayed honest. New Zealand football figures felt wounded by Jennings' allegation this week, saying they "can't imagine" Dempsey would have been corrupted and that, as a successful businessman, he would not have needed the cash.

Similarly, the Oceania Football Confederation released a statement saying Dempsey should just be left alone on the grounds he died in 2008 and can't defend himself, while also claiming Jennings is "unfounded" in his assertion.

But Jennings says he has got evidence.

Speaking to the Herald on Sunday from his home in England, Jennings says he possesses documents which detail 175 bribes totaling more than US$100 million - years of top-secret payments made to football officials from the now defunct sports marketing company International Sport and Leisure, who used to sell Fifa's lucrative World Cup television rights.

Jennings obtained those documents in 2010, details which even brought the FBI knocking for the information. Jennings was happy to help, and, he says, that's also where Dempsey's paper trail lies - a cash payment of US$250,000 made on the same day Dempsey suddenly walked out of the World Cup vote, later citing "intolerable pressure".

Dempsey's name does not actually appear on the list of bribes but Jennings said he has no doubt who the payment was for.

"For him [Dempsey], the actual paperwork is in the ISL bribes list, $100 million went through there. He got peanuts," Jennings said.

"Wiring dollars means they can be discovered. It was a cash payment. His money actually came on the day of the vote, when the guys needed him.

"There can be no doubt. It was paid on that day, the man walked out, unbelievably, in the middle of the vote. He went missing, and no one in the room asked 'where's Charlie?' It's not credible. If New Zealand's cabinet was on a knife-edge vote and one member just walked out, everyone would go berserk.

"But Fifa didn't take his membership card off him and say go back to New Zealand. Instead, not only was he allowed to stay, but four years later, [Fifa president] Sepp Blatter gives him a Fifa Order of Merit award and World Cup tickets.

"Everybody in the room knew when Dempsey walked out. Everyone expected it, we assumed it and then it came up in the ISL bribes list.

"The fact is Dempsey turned up and voted on the first round, it was obvious which way it was going from there - that South Africa would win - so the vote had to be diminished and he walked out."

Jennings, who has been in Rio this week filming a new documentary for the BBC's flagship investigation programme Panorama, says more Fifa revelations are on the way in November.