South African officials have denied that a $10 million bribe was paid to FIFA officials in order to host the 2010 World Cup.
Football's world governing body FIFA was plunged into crisis after a wave of arrests of football officials including two FIFA vice-presidents in Zurich on Wednesday on bribery, fraud and money laundering charges following an FBI investigation.
South Africa was chosen by FIFA to host the 2010 World Cup -- the first African country to ever host the tournament -- ahead of Morocco.
U.S investigators claim that in the early 2000s, the South African government promised to pay $10 million to former former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner -- who surrendered to police after U.S. authorities filed corruption charges against him and 13 others -- and his co-conspirators in exchange for winning the hosting rights for the tournament.
But Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula he told AFP reporters in Johannesburg: "We as a government and people managing the resources of the South African people -- we did not share part of your resources with criminals, I am saying it now and forever.
"The South African government and its people will not stand in any way of pursuing justice, criminality [and] fighting corruption in sport. We are not and we have never acted in Hollywood and we are not used to these things.
"Let us protect our sovereignty and national interest and fight corruption -- but equally we must not allow to be abused... people seem to cast aspersions on our integrity.
"There is nothing from our side that could implicate our government, as has been vastly speculated... we must not become a reckless casualty."
Jeff Radebe -- a minister in the South African president's office -- told reporters in Cape Town: "When we concluded the FIFA World Cup here in South Africa we got a clean audit report."
And South Africa Football Association (Safa) Dominic Chimhavi tweeted that there is "no need to press any panic button," adding: "We are disappointed at the baseless and untested allegations and request proof from anyone who has contrary evidence.
"Our bid campaign was run by, among others, late president Nelson Mandela, former president Thabo Mbeki and several government ministers, who are men of integrity."
No need to press any panic button regarding the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Terrible thumb-sucking from individual making those wild allegations
- Dominic Chimhavi (@DChimhavi) May 28, 2015
Meanwhile, former French Football Federation president Claude Simonet has told RMC his "hands are clean" after France was caught up in FIFA scandal.
The U.S. Attorney General's indictment against Jack Warner alleges the Trinidadian, 72, asked for and accepted bribes for his role in the attribution of the 1998 World Cup finals.
The U.S. Attorney General's indictment against Jack Warner alleges the Trinidadian, 72, asked for and accepted bribes for his role in the attribution of the 1998 World Cup finals.
France won the final FIFA vote 12-7 against Morocco, and the host nation eventually won the tournament to pick up their first World Cup.
President of the FFF between 1994 and 2005, Simonet, 84, denied any wrongdoing on his part and on that of one of his predecessor, Fernand Sastre, who was co-president of the 1998 World Cup local organising committee.
"I only became president in 1994, so I arrived after the World Cup had already been awarded to France," Simonet explained. "I was president when there was the FIFA congress in 1998 at the FFF.
"But at that time, it was only a question of the election between Mr Blatter and Mr Johansson. I have no memory that someone came to me to ask to vote for one or the other.
"Fernand Sastre was a great man, a man of finance, who certainly wasn't involved in such things. It's impossible. I don't believe it. I had enormous esteem for this official. It seems to me to be a strange affair. In any case, believe me, my hands are clean."
Simonet did admit meeting Warner when he was president of the Atlantic region and the latter was a member of a FIFA delegation visiting the stadium in Nantes, one of the 1998 venues.
He added: "That's the only time I have really met him, even though I was only president of the Atlantic league. If I remember rightly, he was Catholic and he asked me if I could find him a church.
"I think it was my wife who took care of that. That's the only relations I had with him at the time. You know, I was just new."