Fifa's dirty secrets part 1 of 3

This is the Panorama programme widely accused of having cost us the World Cup 2018. Of course if you believe that you are really clasping at straws. Nonetheless it has to be questioned why a government sponsored institution was trying to sink our hosting bid.
If you have not seen the film, watch it. It may change your mind on FIFA.

From the Guardian : 7 December 2010:

The controversial Fifa executive committee member Jack Warner today broke his silence on the contested 2018 World Cup vote when he said voting for England would have been "the ultimate insult" to Fifa in the wake of British media allegations of corruption.

England 2018 insiders claim Warner, pivotal to their chances of success and wooed by David Beckham and successive prime ministers, promised the three votes under his control to England before voting for Russia. But the Concacaf president said the revelations in the Sunday Times and Panorama were the reason England polled only two of the 22 votes available and were knocked out in the first round.

Three days before the vote, Panorama accused three Fifa executive committee members of bribery and alleged Warner tried to supply ticket touts at the 2010 World Cup. He had previously been admonished by Fifa's ethics committee over ticket deals for the 2006 tournament and has faced a host of other allegations of impropriety.

"Suffice it to say the Fifa exco as a body could not have voted for England having been insulted by their media in the worst possible way at the same time. To do so would have been the ultimate insult [to Fifa]," said Warner.

It is understood the Fifa president Sepp Blatter raised the issue of the "evil" media coverage of Fifa just hours before the vote and England's rivals, including the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and influential Spanish ex-co member Angel María Villar Llona, played heavily on it.

Some on England's bid team believe the revelatory media exposes, which they tried desperately to disassociate themselves from, were a factor but others believe that the issue became an convenient excuse for Fifa members to switch their votes for other reasons.

Japan's Junji Ogura said the investigations, which led to the suspension of six senior Fifa officials including two executive committee members in the case of the Sunday Times, had an impact.

"What I can say is that the reports definitely had an impact on the England bid. There's no mistake about that," said Ogura, heavily courted by England but believed to have backed Russia.

Ogura said his colleagues were angry at the Sunday Times sting on Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii. "The African members of the executive committee were furious over the Sunday Times report," Ogura said.

"They even suggested suing the paper at the executive committee meeting. The people being accused were from Africa and Oceania, not Europe or Asia, and some felt racism was behind it."

The head of Australia's failed 2022 bid Frank Lowy said "playing straight" may have cost them the World Cup, adding that Fifa members lied to them about their voting intentions.

"I wanted to give credit to Australia and not to get caught in some kind of shonky business, and I can assure you now that we didn't do anything that was improper in this whole period," said Lowy.

"Did that cost us the bid? Maybe. I don't know, I'm not sure. But we are straight and we wanted to play it straight."

Jerome Valcke, the Fifa secretary general who oversaw the voting process, again defended the secret ballot system.

"If we say yes, yes it does not work, we would recognise something went wrong," said Valcke, speaking in Abu Dhabi ahead of tomorrow's opening match of the Club World Cup. "I'm sorry to say we have organised a voting system which was very transparent.

"If the question is it's not transparent because you don't know who voted for whom, you will never know for whom I voted for between Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal three years ago when the election took place. I will not tell because that is my freedom to decide for whom I voted without having to say publicly my choice."

Valcke, under pressure as the man who recommended that both World Cups be decided at once for commercial reasons, has already indicated that Fifa will not bow to pressure to overhaul the voting system or expand the electorate.

He said Fifa had until 2018 to decide if it "should or [should] not change" the way host countries are decided. But he said last week's vote was "perfectly organised, perfectly transparent and perfectly under control."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• FIFA
• Panorama
• World
• Cup
• 2018

[samplersam69]

WAKE UP EVERYONE!!!!!...........FIFA is not a company, and does not own football, thier only purpose is to represent the members, that means everyone who plays and watches football, past, present and future.........the crooks running FIFA are busy lining their own pockets with cash that should be going back into the game. The whole FIFA organisation needs ripping apart and we should start again, this lot are rotten to the core, and cannot be trusted, especially Sepp Blatter!!!!

[alanheath3]

@samplersam69 but at the end of the day FIFA is not a democracy and as a private organisation can make its own rules - providing that the members agree of course. If those rules include bribery then one needs to play by those rules!

Maybe those organisations which are opposed to how FIFA is run ought to start their own organisation?

[samplersam69]

@alanheath3

But FiFA's rules and code's of practice do make it a democracy, where taking bribes or doing anything for personal gain is outlawed.......the rules are in black and white, it's just NO-ONE from the FIFA 'FAMILY' (Mafia) is clean enough to do anything about it, hence, Sepp threatens to take everyone down with him, and the fearful ones vote him back in again, so the ONLY way is for the whole thing to be taken apart and rebuilt 'fit for purpose'......BOYCOTT THE 2014 SPONSORS !!!

[alanheath3]

@samplersam69 I have not read their code of practice and if that is what the rules are then they need to be respected. I do not think that boycotting the sponsors is the answer - would a threat to boycott the tournament work better?

[peterpetersbng]

forget Corruption . just ask the question what is FIFA´S true motivations.. yes you got it they are just a firm making money off the name of  football...Based in Zurich they run football only because they can make money.. this is the question here

[alanheath3]

@peterpetersbng I don't think there is anything wrong with making money, after all no-one works for nothing and they need some cash when they go down to Tescos. I think the problem is in underhand payments or if bribery is the rule, at least say openly how much each bribe is going to cost!

[fbh2011]

I for one also think it's purely 'sour grapes.' If England had won the right to host the games, I do not believe the British press and media (BBC!) would have kicked up such a 'fuss' about all the dirty tactics and bribery going on. It's quite sad really - corruption is 'everywhere,' not just confined to other countries. Let's not blame other countries - remember the UK gov expenses scandal anyone? England lost and are now acting like little kids in a school yard! BBC, Sky news etc - let it go!!

[xaked103]

@humbrolenamel

sorry but i think you've got it wrong, the 'fuss' at this time is actually about this coming elections where bin hammam and warner are accused of lobbying votes with money as incentives or bribes..... they have not touched and by the looks of it will not at all look into WC2018 and '22 votes or change that outcome. its all about politics ( Blatter = Ghaddafi = Mubarak )

[AstonVilla82thebest]

Switzerland can be the hero here by kicking out FIFA and corrupt Blatter. they can go down as the ones who played a big part in getting rid of corruption, and going down in history what country is gonna accept a bunch of corrupt old businessmen?