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Explosive SAFA letter surfaces in FIFA scandal

Cape Town - A letter addressed to FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke has surfaced, seemingly proving Valcke's involvement in the payment of $10 million from the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) to the Diaspora Legacy Progamme.

On Tuesday, FIFA admitted that it had processed a $10 million payment from South Africa to a disgraced football official, but denied that the world body's secretary general Jerome Valcke was involved.

The letter dated May 8, 2008 states that "in the view of the decision of the South African government that FIFA withholds $10 million from the LOC's future operational budget funding and advances the withheld money to the Diaspora Legacy Progamme".

The letter's author, SAFA president at the time Molefi Oliphant, also requests that the Diaspora Legacy Progamme be administered and implemented by the president of CONCACAF - who at the time was Jack Warner, the man at the very centre of the current US investigation into a number of corruption and bribery charges. 

This latest development would seem to indicate the involvement of the South African government along with Valcke in the payment of funds from FIFA to CONCACAF on behalf of the LOC.

The letter via Martyn Ziegler, the Press Association's chief reporter:

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