CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Former South African President Thabo Mbeki denied his government paid bribes to secure the 2010 World Cup as the bid scandal began to encroach on the very top of the country's leadership.
Mbeki's statement came as South African soccer head and former 2010 bid leader Danny Jordaan reportedly told a newspaper that $10 million was paid to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner's regional confederation in 2008.
According to the Sunday Independent newspaper, Jordaan denied that money - referred to in the U.S. Department of Justice's indictment into corruption in FIFA - was a bribe from South Africa via FIFA for Warner's backing.