Dempsey death threat claim; FOOTBALL: THE MAN WHO GAVE THE WORLD CUP TO GERMANY CAUGHT IN THE EYE OF AN ALMIGHTY ROW OVER ABSTENTION.

FIFA today launched an internal inquiry into sleaze allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany, after revelations that death threats were made against one of the members of the organisation's powerful executive committee.

New Zealander Charles Dempsey, the Oceania football chief, told FIFA officials that threats had been made against him. He decided to abstain when it came to final voting - he had been expected to back South Africa - and Germany won by a single vote.

A spokesman for soccer's world governing body said the German Football Federation (DFB) and the organising committee will join in the inquiry.

Other allegations surround a letter, purporting to be from the Germans, offering gifts in return for votes, but FIFA have already dismissed this as a hoax.

The death threats however, are being taken seriously. FIFA communications director Keith Cooper, speaking during a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in, described how Dempsey had mentioned the threats to other delegates at yesterday's executive committee meeting.

Cooper, who attended the meeting, said: "Charlie referred at the beginning of the meeting to legal advice which he had taken because of the difficult personal situation he found himself in and I would absolutely subscribe to the description of intolerable unbearable personal pressure."

Asked to detail the manner of the pressure Dempsey was under, Cooper said: "If you think of your own personal safety and that of the people who are close and dear to you."

When asked if Cooper meant death threats, he replied: "If you want to interpret it that way I would not disagree with it."

When asked where the death threats came from, he added: "I don't know. That's not my business but he (Dempsey) made that clear to the meeting."

Dempsey, 78, cited "very strong reasons" for his decision to abstain but refused to say what they were.

"I had very strong reasons but I am not going into them," he said.His voice quaking, he said: "I did not do it lightly. I do not make decisions like that lightly. I was under unsustainable pressure.

"I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of it until I have discussed it with my executive."

The decision to abstain in the crucial final vote at FIFA headquarters in Zurich has not gone down well in Scottish-born Dempsey's adopted homeland.

Sports Minister Trevor Mallard described Dempsey as an "international embarrassment" while Prime Minister Helen Clark stuck the boot in, saying she was upset by the result as she had promised New Zealand's support for the South African bid.

Mark Burgess, New Zealand's representative on the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), said Dempsey, 78, had not followed instructions given to him at the Confederation's meeting in Samoa in May - to vote for England and once they were out of the running to support South Africa.

"I can't believe he has done this intentionally to shoot himself in the foot back here," Burgess said.

"The vote was a democratic one in Samoa, they still preferred England in the first vote, but on the second the vote was to go to South Africa.

The German 2006 World Cup campaign team have distanced themselves from the letter sent to up to 10 members of the FIFA executive committee which supposedly offered them "a gift" in return for their support for Germany.

The letter, sent from Frankfurt to the hotels of committee members on the eve of the vote, was - according to FIFA vice-president Jack Warner - "badly typed, poorly phrased with spelling mistakes and, as far as I'm concerned, a hoax".

It purported to come from a certain Martin Hansen, who claimed to be secretary of TDES (WM 2006 initiative), yet no German journalists covering yesterday's vote in Zurich had heard of such an organisation.

German campaign team spokesman Wolfgang Niersbach added: "It is nonsense. I have seen the letter for the first time in my life when it was shown to me just now. I can confirm that there is no Martin Hansen on the German bid committee. The letter is not official and the telephone number given at the bottom is nothing to do with the German FA."

A FIFA spokesman added today: "We have had discussions with members of the German bid committee and both of us will be conducting internal inquiries. Exactly what form those will take remains to be seen."