Egyptian prosecutors investigating the alleged mishandling of the US$7 million spent to promote the country's failed bid to host the 2010 World Cup have found little evidence of wrongdoing.

After the three-month probe ended, three officials in the Ministry of Youth and Sport were convicted of minor administrative violations of a technical nature on Monday.

Talaat Genidy, a former Director of Sports in the ministry, and two other governmental officers were found guilty of using foreign airlines during the campaign rather than national airlines, an offence which violates a local ministerial law.

"There was no misuse of the campaign's money," Egypt's Attorney General Maher Abdel Wahed announced at a news conference.

However, there were some administrative wrongdoings committed by three officials."

The guilty trio will learn their fate when the administrative court of the Youth and Sports Ministrty meets to discuss a suitable punishment - likely to either be a fine or a suspension.

Abdel Wahed also confirmed that the total amount of money used during the bid was US$6.8m.

Of this figure, US$4.7m was raised by the government while private companies subsidized the rest of the bid with an input of just over US$2m.

The probe into the alleged mishandling of funds began after state auditors reported "several financial violations" concerning the expenditure of funds.

After questions were raised in parliament, Anas el-Fiqqi, Egypt's Youth and Sports Minister, transferred the matter to official investigators in August.

Egypt failed to win a single vote from the 24-man Fifa Executive Committee which awarded the right to state football's showpiece event to South Africa.

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