Stunning Report: Germany Shipped Arms to Saudis for World Cup Vote

As the FIFA scandal widens, the Guardian reported Friday that the 2006 World Cup vote was influenced by a shipment of rocket-propelled grenades from Germany to Saudi Arabia.

Image source: Inform

Citing a report by German newspaper Die Zeit, the Guardian said then-chancellor Gerhard Shroder gave arms to the Saudis in exchange for support in Germany’s World Cup bid and noted that the Germans defeated South Africa 12-11 in the final round under "controversial circumstances."

Allegedly the German government lifted arms restrictions just days before the World Cup vote so it could make the arms shipment, the Guardian said.

More from the Guardian:

The claims mean that the votes for the 1998, 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2022 tournaments are now under scrutiny in some way. Brazilian authorities and the FBI are also looking into the contracts signed in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup.

FBI sources have confirmed that it is investigating claims relating to all of those tournaments except 2006 and Egypt, one of the bidders for 2010, has now alleged that (former FIFA vice president Jack) Warner — who has vigorously denied wrongdoing but was charged in the U.S. indictment — asked for a $7m bribe.

“I did not imagine that Fifa was so corrupt,” the former Egypt sports minister Aley Eddine Helal told ONTV in Cairo. “Jack Warner demanded $7m before the voting. Egypt’s FA president El-Dahshori Harb met with the Fifa official in the United Arab Emirates and informed me that he wanted a $7m bribe. "Helal said he and other officials on the 2010 bid committee have been silent for the 11 years since losing because they did not have any proof to back “the suspicions we have always had about the disgraceful way we lost."

Egypt failed to poll a single vote and the tournament was awarded to South Africa, which was desperate to clinch the right to host the World Cup after losing out so narrowly to Germany for 2006. New evidence has also emerged that appears to confirm that Danny Jordaan, the leader of the 2010 World Cup bid and organizing committee, and the Fifa secretary general, Valcke, knew about a disputed $10m payment to Warner’s Concacaf confederation.

In other FIFA news, Irish soccer chiefs disclosed documentary evidence Friday of how FIFA paid millions to buy Ireland's silence on the handball that cost the Irish a chance to reach the 2010 World Cup.

The documents — published after the Football Association of Ireland suffered a daylong barrage of international criticism over its decision to take the confidential payment — detail a series of meetings in Switzerland involving FAI and FIFA chiefs, including President Sepp Blatter. These followed Ireland's 2-1 loss on aggregate to France in November 2009, a result partly achieved by an infamous Thierry Henry handball that went uncalled and produced France's playoff-clinching goal.

The self-described "moral compensation" contract, signed Jan. 15, 2010, by senior FAI and FIFA officials in Zurich, guaranteed the FAI immediate delivery of 5 million euros (then $7.13 million) on strict condition that Irish officials never revealed existence of the deal. The payment was initially labeled a loan, but the contact included no terms for repayment, and the FAI never did pay it back.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

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