South Africa consider legal challenge to World Cup vote

Irvin Khoza, chairman of South Africa's World Cup 2006 bid committee, is to meet a top Belgian lawyer in Brussels tomorrow over a possible legal challenge to the vote which handed the tournament to Germany.

"It is imperative not just for South Africa, but for the future of football as a whole, that we get to the bottom of this," Khoza said yesterday.

"Why must we keep quiet? What happened was unprecedented and we need to sort it out for the good of the game."

According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, the South Africans were contacted by the Belgian lawyer who is an expert in Swiss law and who thinks the country may have legal grounds to call for a FIFA re-vote.

Earlier this month, FIFA's 24-man executive voted 12-11 in favour of Germany to host the 2006 World Cup after the crucial abstention of Oceania representative Charles Dempsey, who has said he was subjected to intolerable pressure.

When the South African bid committee arrived back home from Zurich they immediately appointed lawyer Michael Katz to investigate the voting process.

After a week of meetings, Khoza says they have several options at their disposal. "We are not clutching at straws here. The majority of the world agrees that what is taking place in FIFA at present is wrong. If Charles Dempsey was threatened with his life not to vote, then FIFA must investigate that if it is a truly transparent organisation."

Khoza is not concerned about the possible repercussions a legal challenge could have on South Africa's image. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has already stated that the vote will stand.

Meanwhile, South Africa will ask to host the 2010 World Cup, bid committee chief executive Danny Jordaan said yesterday.

They will also support calls for the event to be rotated by continent and challenge the composition of FIFA's executive, a third of whom are from Europe.

Jordaan and a delegation of his colleagues will raise these issues at FIFA's August 3rd conference, he said.

He added: "It is not about Dempsey but democracy - Europe has eight delegates (on the 24-man FIFA executive) and Africa only has four."

Africa's football federation is the biggest, with 52 members, and the South Africans feel it is under-represented.

"The real fight now is to dismantle Europe's stranglehold on FIFA," a South African Football Association (SAFA) official said. "The European membership of FIFA has been run along colonial lines since it was established more than 80 years ago. . . Yet Europe still clings to that outdated mentality," he said.