FIFA probing World Cup vote corruption report

Posted Monday, October 18, 2010 by YAHOO Sport

LONDON (AFP) - A FIFA investigation was under way on Sunday after a British newspaper reported senior officials had offered to sell their votes in the bidding race for the 2018 World Cup.

An undercover investigation by The Sunday Times alleged that Amos Adamu, a Nigerian member of the world football governing body's executive committee, asked for 800,000 dollars (570,000 euros) to endorse one of the bid candidates.

It filmed him meeting with undercover journalists posing as lobbyists for a United States business consortium, in which he apparently offered a "guarantee" to vote for the US bid in the 2018 event in return for cash.

The report also alleged Reynald Temarii, a FIFA vice-president and president of the Oceania Football Confederation, sought three million New Zealand dollars (1.6 million euros, 2.3 million US dollars) for a sports academy.

He allegedly boasted that supporters of two bid committees had already offered Oceania money to swing his vote.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the Sunday Times report had created a "very negative impact" for football's world governing body as he promised an "immediate, in-depth investigation."

Blatter has written to each of the 24 FIFA executive committee members who will decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups at a vote in Zurich on December 2.

"I am sorry to have to inform you of a very unpleasant situation, which has developed in relation to an article published today in the Sunday Times titled 'World Cup votes for sale'," Blatter's letter said.

"The information in the article has created a very negative impact on FIFA and on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Some current and former members of the executive committee are mentioned in the article."

"FIFA will… open an in-depth investigation, which we will start immediately together with the FIFA ethics committee and the FIFA secretary general," he added.

The Sunday Times said the bid committees had denied any wrongdoing. British media reported later Sunday that FIFA may even consider postponing the December vote in Switzerland.

The nations in the running to host the 2018 World Cup are England, Russia, Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium. For 2022, the contenders are Qatar, Australia, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was "very disturbed" by the allegations.

"Of course we want all the proceedings in the World Cup bid to be carried out in a way that is ethically correct and that therefore means that everybody can respect the process and respect the result," he said.

Any deals during the bidding process for a World Cup are strictly forbidden under FIFA's rules, but the Sunday Times said six senior officials, past and present, had told reporters that paying bribes offered their best chance at securing a successful bid.

The money requested by Adamu, the president of the West African Football Union, was intended to pay for four artificial football pitches in Nigeria, but he said it should be paid to him personally.

Gara Gombe, a veteran football administrator in Nigeria who has been a long-time critic of the Nigeria Football Federation, said the country should have its own independent investigation into the allegations.

"This is an embarrassment not only to Amos Adamu but also to the country as a whole," Gombe told AFP. "Nigeria therefore has to set up an independent investigation."

The United States this week withdrew from the 2018 contest to focus its energy on its bid to win the 2022 event. There is no suggestion of impropriety on the part of their bid committee.