Dempsey was `threatened' but FIFA gives Germany clean chit

Dempsey was `threatened' but FIFA gives Germany clean chit
AGENCIES

Auckland, July 8: The man at the centre of the 2006 World Cup furore, New Zealander Charlie Dempsey, arrived home on Saturday to confirm he had been threatened over a vote to decide who should host the competition.

Dempsey caused outrage when he abstained on a crucial vote in Zurich on who should host the Cup, allowing Germany to beat favourites South Africa.

FIFA's communications director Keith Cooper said Dempsey had received death threats, although FIFA itself later retracted the claim.

``I was threatened, but I didn't say I was threatened with my life," Dempsey told a reporter from the New Zealand Press Association.

Dempsey planned to talk to the Oceania Football Confederation executive on Sunday ahead of a press conference on Monday when he said he would publicly explain his decision to abstain.

Dempsey agreed that had he voted for South Africa and tied the vote, FIFA president Sepp Blatter ``probably'' would have used his casting vote as chairman to swing the outcome in South Africa's favour.

In Zurich on Friday, FIFA all but closed their investigation into the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany just hours after it began.

On Friday launched a joint inquiry with the German Football Federation (DFB) and the successful German organising committee but hours later a statement from the world governing body all but ended the probe.

But Danny Jordaan, who led pre-vote favourites South Africa's unsuccessful bid for the tournament, said he would wait until Monday's scheduled press conference by Dempsey before deciding whether to contest the decision of the FIFA executive committee to deny Africa their first World Cup and award Europe their 10th.

``FIFA has instituted a commission of inquiry. We will have to wait on that inquiry and see what comes out,'' Jordaan said on SABC Public Radio.

``Secondly we have to wait for Dempsey to make his position clear by way of a press conference on Monday and thirdly we have to see what sort of explanation will be forthcoming from him to the government of New Zealand.

`After collecting all those facts we will be able to assess our position,'' he added.

In Berlin, German soccer chiefs said on Saturday they may take legal action against a satirical magazine over hoax letters offering bribes to FIFA delegates on the eve of successful bid.

German football federation (DFB) general secretary Horst Schmidt was quoted by Bild newspaper as saying the hoax -- claimed to have been perpetrated by Germany's Titanic monthly -- had damaged both his organisation and the country.

``The DFB is -- in consultation with FIFA -- considering legal steps against Titanic. The limits of satire have been far exceeded,'' Schmidt was reported as saying.

Dempsey also said a letter offering him a bribe was one factor behind his decision, but it was not clear whether he was referring to the hoax claimed by Titanic editor Martin Sonneborn.

Meanwhile, in Pretoria, New Zealand's high commission has said it had received abusive calls after Dempsey's defiance.

Acting High Commissioner Phil Bennet told SABC Television on Friday that the public must know that New Zealand was just as devastated by Charlie Dempsey's abstention as South africa was.

``The government and the peple of New Zealand are as stunned and dismayed by this as South Africans are,'' Bennet said.

South African President Thabo Mbeki's office said in a statement: ``Much as the people of South africa and the rest of Africa deplore Dempsey's action, President Mbeki assured the Prime Minister of his conviction that she, her government and the people of new zealand are genuine friends of our country and people...''

Meanwhile, South Africa's footballers have a chance to alleviate the bitter disappointment of defeat in the 2006 World Cup race when they play Zimbabwe in a qualifier for the 2002 finals in Harare on Sonday.

It will be the first match for the South Africans in the second round group phase, one of 10 african qualifiers over the weekend.