OCEANIA Football Confederation (OFC) president Charlie Dempsey, who was forced to step down as yesterday, said early this morning he had permission to vary his vote at the FIFA meeting that decided which country would host the 2006 World Cup.

Dempsey added that he abstained from the final ballot in Zurich because he feared a vote for either side would be detrimental to soccer in the 11 Oceania nations.

The vote went 12-11 in Germany's favour. If Dempsey had voted, the decision would have come down to a tie-breaking vote by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a supporter of South Africa.

"It had also been made clear to me by influential European interests that if I cast my vote in favour of South Africa, there would be adverse effects for OFC and FIFA," Dempsey said. "I believe that decision was in the best interest of football and in particular those of the OFC."

His daughter, OFC executive secretary Josephine King, said she had rung OFC delegates at the request of Dempsey and gained permission for him to vary from the previously agreed position of supporting South Africa over Germany.

"I gave him the advice that the majority (of the OFC) had said he could have his freedom, and it wasn't in dispute whether he had it," she told reporters.

Dempsey said he had supported England's World Cup bid until the English dropped out and there was never a requirement he support South Africa, only an understanding that he would.

However, Soccer New Zealand chief executive Bill MacGowan questioned which six countries in Oceania's 11-member group had given Dempsey permission to vary a vote MacGowan thought would be cast along the lines agreed previously by the OFC.

OFC vice-president Johnny Tinsley Lulu of Vanuatu said Dempsey was retiring because executive members made it clear they were unhappy with his explanation of the events in Zurich.

OFC executive members said if Dempsey had not offered to retire he would have been told to step down.

Dempsey emerged from a marathon emergency meeting of the OFC in his home town Auckland to claim the body had backed him. "Behind closed doors the executive met and discussed - I wasn't present - and gave approval to the explanations that I gave for what took place in Zurich," Dempsey said. FIFA has said it will hold an internal investigation into the events surrounding last Thursday's vote and Dempsey was scheduled to explain his reasons publicly today.

Soccer Australia chief Basil Scarsella said yesterday he would bid for the Oceania Football Confederation presidency when Dempsey stepped down.

He said Dempsey's third round abstention from the World Cup voting had made the federation some enemies but in the end the majority decision had prevailed.

Earlier in the day, Dempsey was quoted by the Sunday Star Times as saying he would not resign.

Minister of Sport Trevor Mallard has called him a "public embarrassment," and outraged South Africans who had been optimistic about winning the hosting rights have accused him of betrayal.

In Johannesburg, the mass-circulation Sunday Times claimed Dempsey abstained from the final round of voting as an act of revenge against Blatter.

The paper said Dempsey was humiliated by Blatter during the Oceania congress in Samoa two months ago. Blatter told Dempsey, who has ruled the Oceania Football Confederation for 18 years with an iron fist, the time was fast approaching for him to surrender his crown, the Times claimed.

He was also told voting for England "because his roots lay there" was not acceptable.

According to Johannesburg-based Sunday Independent, the lawyer for the country's unsuccessful bid committee was investigating whether South Africa could provide proof of irregularities and appeal against Germany's nomination.