In the latest twist to the FIFA corruption scandal, the governing body have shifted the blame for a $US10 million ($12.9 million) payment from South Africa to Jack Warner to a recently deceased finance committee chief.

In the latest effort to exonerate secretary general Jerome Valcke, FIFA shifted the blame to deceased former finance committee chief, Argentine Julio Grondona.

Julio Grondona, late president of the Argentine Football of Association. Credit:Reuters

Warner, one of 14 people facing corruption charges in the United States over $150 million in bribes, was at the time Grondona's deputy as head of FIFA's finance committee.

The South African government asked FIFA to "withhold" money intended for the organisers of the 2010 World Cup and send it to a development project in the Caribbean run by Warner, a FIFA statement said.