Paris (AFP)

Russia a little deeper into the "Fifagate": US justice for the first time said that bribes had been paid for the organization of the 2018 World Cup, an accusation strongly rejected by Moscow Tuesday.

The document published Monday by the federal prosecutor of Brooklyn affirms that two deposed leaders of the international football federation (Fifa) would have voted in favor of Russia, designated at the end of 2010 organizer of the World-2018, in exchange for large sums.

The prosecution, responsible for the main part of the investigation into the Fifagate, a sprawling corruption case involving former top leaders of world football since 2015, had never mentioned Russia directly so far.

It is also the first time that the justice of a country affirms that the votes designating Qatar and Russia were marred by irregularities.

"We do not understand what it is all about. (...) Russia has received quite legally the right to organize the World Cup. It is not linked to any bribes , we categorically deny this, "said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on Tuesday.

So far, the investigation, which has led to the accusation of some 45 natural and legal persons, has mainly focused on television broadcasting rights.

- Five million dollars -

Concretely, two deposed senior leaders of Fifa, the Trinidadian Jack Warner and the Guatemalan Rafael Salguero, have, according to the prosecution, been bribed to promote the Russian candidacy.

The first would have touched 5 million dollars via a complex network of shell companies, with the help of a "close adviser to the president of Fifa" of the time, the latter being the Swiss Sepp Blatter, forced to resign in 2015 when the scandal broke out.

Rafael Salguero is said to have been promised a million dollars.

The two, already convicted in other cases related to their activities in football, were already banned by Fifa in 2015. Warner, settled in Trinidad and Tobago where he escapes the criminal proceedings of the American justice, is claimed. by the United States where he has already been tried in civil proceedings.

Questioned by AFP, Sepp Blatter denied his involvement. "I would never have told an adviser to intervene," assured the Swiss.

Fifa, for its part, said in a press release that it supported "all investigations into alleged criminal wrongdoing" and would continue to "cooperate with the judicial authorities".

- Qatar and Russia pointed -

Regarding Qatar, organizer of the 2022 World Cup, appointed at the same time as Russia, the Americans are providing concrete information in this case, which is also the subject of an investigation in France.

According to the prosecution, several leaders have received envelopes to buy their votes, including the sulfurous Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira, already implicated in other Fifagate cases and who escapes American prosecution for lack of extradition agreement between Brazil and states -United.

The federal prosecutor's office, however, gives little information at this stage on the origin of the payments.

Sepp Blatter explained the attribution of the Mondial-2022 to Qatar by a "political intervention" from France, resuming his usual line of defense in the matter.

For Russia, this is a new affair which it would do well: the country has already seen its image seriously tarnished by the resounding scandal of institutional doping which has banished it from world sport.

President Vladimir Putin had made the organization of the 2018 World Cup, like the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a reason for national pride.

The Russian authorities regularly put forward the idea of ​​a Western plot to humiliate and eliminate a geopolitical and sports competitor when the country is implicated in the context of sport.

Russia is also involved in the investigation against X conducted since 2015 in Switzerland for suspicions of "money laundering and unfair management" around the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 Worlds.

"Russia organized the best football World Cup in history. We are proud of it," said Dmitri Peskov on Tuesday.

© 2020 AFP