On June 13 2009, just before the Confederations Cup in South Africa, president Jacob Zuma enjoyed a charming meeting with a Fifa vice-president called Jack Warner at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Zuma told Warner - arrested yesterday and accused of taking a $10-million bribe to back South Africa's 2010 World Cup bid - how grateful he was to the man who was in charge of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association of Football for 21 years until he resigned in 2011.Zuma oozed: "Without your efforts and personal intervention, none of this today would have been possible in South Africa. South Africa owes you a debt of gratitude."It's probably not a great time to raise that "debt of gratitude". But let's just have a look at this 72-year-old, born Austin Warner, who apparently backed South Africa with his confederation's votes rather than Morocco (who only offered $1-million).Warner's a classic Fifa delegate: he's past retirement age, was president of the Concacaf and, perhaps more importantly, he was the Trinidad and Tobago minster of security until 2013 and has been an MP since 2007.But the question is, did Warner have a close relationship with any South Africans before the 2010 World Cup host vote?He's well known for self-enhancement, setting up the local professional league and taking "inducements" and selling black-market World Cup tickets, which may or may not have helped him to buy a local hotel and football club en route to becoming an elected politician.Just because Zuma thanked him profusely for his role in South Africa's World Cup bid does not mean anybody is guilty of anything.But the fact remains - a shadow has been cast over our great World Cup. A shadow presaged by match-fixing allegations over Bafana Bafana's pre-tournament friendlies. A matter still not dealt with by Sports and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, Safa or Fifa.The truth is, for all his bluster yesterday, Mbalula knows Fifa votes are heavily influenced by not-so-carefully placed "inducements" and for years in the build-up to the World Cup, South Africa - like so many others - turned a blind eye to such practices.Rather than laugh off the allegations, Mbalula might have been better served instructing our delegation not to vote for Sepp Blatter in today's probable fifth re-election of the elderly Swiss footballing dictator.Perhaps he could have rolled out Irvin Khoza, mayor Danny Jordaan and Tokyo Sexwale - all known Blatter fans - to distance South Africa from Fifa's malign shadow.Mbalula dealt well with the Fifa arrests yesterday, picking his questions, offering comical answers and sticking to the "we couldn't possibly be corrupt" line with extraordinary conviction.On the surface, there was no need to offer bribes to bring the World Cup to South Africa. We were always the favoured hosts after the shock "Dempsey vote" in 2006. But just as Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 needed all the help they could get when their status as home nations were confirmed in 2010, there will always be those who require "a bit of encouragement" to vote the right way.Collins is a journalist who has written extensively on allegations of corruption surrounding Fifa..