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South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula yesterday denied allegations that huge bribes were paid to win the right to host the 2010 World Cup, saying that public money had not been given to “criminals”.Fifa has been engulfed in a bribery scandal that includes accusations from the US attorney general that Fifa officials took cash in return for awarding the tournament to South Africa.

“Our bid campaign was run by, among others, late president Nelson Mandela, former president Thabo Mbeki and several government ministers, who are men of integrity.”

“When we concluded the Fifa World Cup here in South Africa we got a clean audit report,” Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told reporters in Cape Town earlier yesterday.

“There has never been any suggestion that anything untoward happened in South Africa.”

Meanwhile, Australian soccer officials said they were planning to vote for Prince Ali bin Al Hussein at the Fifa presidential election, in direct contrast to the Asian Football Confederation which had earlier re-affirmed its support for Sepp Blatter.

The Football Federation of Australia had previously been a staunch ally of Blatter but issued a statement yesterday saying soccer’s world governing body needed a new leader. — AFP