June 11, 2015 Hawks police unit in South Africa have begun investigations into the involvement of local officials in the payment of a ten million US dollar payout to FIFA, what U.S. prosecutors have called a bribe, for the country to be selected as the 2010 World cup host.
The investigations commenced after South African sports officials admitted paying the money to Jack Warner, a former soccer head in the Caribbean and North and Central America. The officials say it was a donation for development projects and not a bribe. U.S authorities don’t share in this thinking.
Now elite police, The Hawks, formerly known as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, have stepped in, saying this first assessment will determine whether a full investigation is needed.
According to Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, “There is no formal investigation regarding the FIFA issues but it is just an inquiry whether there is something we can look into or not, and that is from the Freedom Front Plus.”
He added that the they have not been in contact with the FBI, and are waiting to see if the American law enforcement body will contact them.