Former CONMEBOL chief Nicolas Leoz is currently under house arresr

The 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea was dragged into the FIFA corruption scandal on Friday, while fresh claims were made about vote collusion in the 2018 and 2022 elections on another dark day for the world game.

A Spanish newspaper alleged Japan paid $1.5million (£950,000) to the South American federation (CONMEBOL) to secure support for their successful 2002 bid, with most of the money siphoned into the personal bank account of president Nicolas Leoz.

One of Leoz’s closest FIFA colleagues, Brazil’s Ricardo Teixeira, then confirmed there had been malpractice in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes, which are subject to an ongoing criminal investigation.

Japan have been accused of paying the South American federation £950,000 in return of their vote to host the 2002 World Cup, the final between Brazil and Germany (above) was played in Yokohama

Cafu lifts the prestigious World Cup trophy in 2002 after Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in Yokohama, Japan

Ex-CONMEBOL chief Nicolas Leoz is said to have received the money from Japan in his personal account

Paraguay’s Leoz, under house arrest on his Asuncion estate while facing extradition to answer US Department of Justice indictments, is accused of multiple counts of money-laundering.

The claims against Leoz were backed up by documents released by an anonymous former CONMEBOL employee to newspaper AS.

Money entering CONMEBOL was distributed on a whim by Leoz, who moved millions of US dollars from football accounts into those of himself and his cronies during a 27-year reign.

Among the massive sums diverted was an alleged £950,000 payment made by Ken Naganuma, the late president of the Japanese football federation, distributed to the 10 CONMEBOL countries in return for votes to secure the 2002 World Cup for Japan and Korea.

This is the first time there has been any suggestion of wrongdoing around 2002. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is already under the spotlight.

Documents published in Spain appear to show Leoz moved £750,000 into an account belonging to himself and wife Maria Clemencia Perez.

The rest of the money went to Eduardo de Luca, the CONMEBOL general secretary, and Zorana Danis, one-time cohort of Chuck Blazer, the disgraced American former FIFA executive.

Leoz, who wanted a knighthood and the FA Cup named after him in return for his vote for England 2018, resigned from FIFA and CONMEBOL two years ago on health grounds.

It was an open secret leading up to the murky ballots in Zurich on December 10 that backers of the Spain-Portugal 2018 bid traded votes with Qatar 2022 supporters.

The toothless FIFA ethics committee looked into the allegations two months before the election but found no case to answer.

Former FIFA officials Jack Warner, Leoz, Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo Jinkis, Mariano Jinkis and Jose Margulies are all on Interpol's most wanted list

How the corruption scandal has engulfed FIFA's hierachy with senior executives and their former colleagues accused of wrongdoing, admitting their guilt or in the case of Blatter, resigning in disgrace

FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted later there had been an agreement — ‘a bundle of votes between Spain and Qatar’ — but claimed it had made no difference to the outcome.

Blatter said: ‘It was nonsense. It was there but it didn’t work, not for one, not for the other.’

The deal was thought to be worth seven votes, which was all Spain-Portugal received in both rounds of the 2018 election.

Teixeira has waited until now before giving his version of events. He said: ‘People say I voted in Qatar, the Brazilian federation voted in Qatar. Not quite. It is clearer to say that South America voted in Qatar. The deal was Qatar would vote for us and in exchange receive our support in 2022.’

England 2018 were involved in collusion on a smaller scale but could not even pull that off.

Geoff Thompson had an agreement with South Korea’s Dr Chung Mong-joon over reciprocal votes for 2018 and 2022, but Chung reneged on the deal and voted for Russia.