The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has published claims that a former FIFA President was bribed by a “Russian oligarch” to ensure Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

A 430-page report, published by the DOJ to review the FBI’s investigation into potential Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, contained details from a previous report by a former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, which alleged that a Russian oligarch had interfered in the bidding process for the 2018 World Cup.

The DOJ report read: “In July 2011, Steele provided a report that summarised an alleged conversation between Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in which, according to the report, Putin acknowledged that a Russian oligarch had bribed the President of FIFA so that Russia could win the right to host the World Cup tournament in 2018.

In 2012, Steele introduced the FBI to two British officials with information concerning Russia’s alleged efforts to bribe FIFA executives.

Steele furnished the FBI with a report dated June 2015 that quoted a Kremlin official as having admitted that the Kremlin bribed FIFA executives in order to secure rights to host the 2018 World Cup.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter is not named in the report, but was in the role at the time of the vote in 2010.