Two of the payments to disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner were made by the world governing body before it received a letter requesting the money, it can be disclosed.
The payment is at the heart of the FIFA bribery scandal - a US justice department indictment of 18 people on corruption charges says the money was paid to Warner and his deputy Chuck Blazer in return for them voting for the 2010 World Cup to be played in South Africa.
A letter to FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke from the then South African Football Association president Molefi Oliphant on March 4 2008 states the money should be withheld from South Africa's World Cup funds and directly administered by Warner in his role as president of CONCACAF.
However, two of the payments had already been made before the letter was sent, and the third took place three days after it was written, according to the indictment.
The discrepancy in the dates will only serve to add to the questions facing FIFA about the payment.
The US indictment states: "On January 2, 2008, January 31, 2008 and March 7, 2008, a high-ranking FIFA official caused payments of USD 616,000, USD 1,600,000, and USD 7,784,000 - totalling USD 10 million - to be wired from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America correspondent account in New York, New York, for credit to accounts held in the names of CFU and CONCACAF, but controlled by the defendant Jack Warner."
A FIFA statement said Valcke was not involved, but that the payment was made at the request of the South African government and FA, and authorised by the late Julio Grondona, the former finance chief and long-time ally of president Sepp Blatter.
The indictment says the money was transferred by Warner to his personal accounts, from which he paid Blazer US dollars 750,000 of a promised 1million.
Source: PA
