South African authorities have opened a "preliminary" investigation into World Cup bribery allegations, and an opposition lawmaker said today he had information suggesting "high-level" involvement.
Anton Alberts of the Freedom Front Plus said the information his party received claimed a previous investigation into "irregular" payments around the World Cup bid was stopped by "high-level interference."
"It (the information) does tell us of an event that took place and an investigation that was stunted from a political level," said Alberts, an opposition member of parliament.
Documents were being handed over to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation unit and needed to be investigated fully, Alberts said.
"The information is quite raw," he said, adding people were "coming out of the woodwork" with information now that a wider U.S. Department of Justice probe into corruption at FIFA was underway.
The South African crime unit's spokesman, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, told The Associated Press that a file had been opened and the unit would decide whether the documents provided by the Freedom Front Plus called for a full investigation.
"There are investigators looking into the matter," Mulaudzi said.
Mulaudzi would not describe the contents of the documents. In a statement, his unit said they concerned "the FIFA issues."
In the DOJ indictment, senior South African bid officials and the government were accused of channeling $10 million through FIFA to some of its top executives as bribes for them backing the country's bid to host the 2010 World Cup, the first in Africa.
