World Cup 2018/2022: Corrupt old FIFA men chase the cash

ENGLAND failed in their bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals as FIFA sadly but inevitably lived up to its reputation for chasing the money.

As a result, Russia were selected as hosts for the 2018 tournament while Qatar won the 2022 bid. It will be the first time either country has hosted a World Cup.

The Russians won the 2018 process by a landslide in the second round of voting, picking up 13 of the 22 votes with the joint Spain-Portugal bid on seven and Netherlands-Belgium on two.

Incredibly, England had gone out in the first round, receiving only two votes with Russia on nine, Spain-Portugal on seven and Netherlands-Belgium on four.

In the 2022 decision, Qatar beat off competition from Australia, South Korea, Japan and United States after four rounds of voting.

England's failure even to make it past the first round of voting left the bid team openly critical about the decision to award two World Cups at the same time.

Chief executive Andy Anson said: "Running two World Cups together was clearly a mistake.

"It inevitably led to people with votes in 2018 doing deals with people involved in 2022."

Additionally, Mr Anson queried the validity of FIFA's technical inspections. "The people who got the best reviews went out earliest, while the people who get the toughest reviews seem to have won," he said.

Mr Anson is right, of course. While FIFA praised the England bid, stating that "all the needs and objectives of our visit were met", parts of the plans by Russia and Qatar were deemed as "high risk".

And yet they still won. The result caused Mr Anson to lament the use of tactical voting by the executive committee.

But we all know this corrupt secretive covent operates at a much baser level than tactical voting.

Just look at the way the Dutch government team released details of FIFA demands for visa waivers and tax exemptions on profits.

Money talks in the world of the FIFA top brass, and it was evident even in England's bid.

Why else, for instance, would England travel to Trinidad & Tobago at the end of a long season in 2007-08 to play an otherwise utterly pointless friendly?

It was hardly an ideal time to renew acquiantances after the teams' meeting at the 2006 World Cup.

Rather, it was clearly a sweetener for FIFA vice-president and Trinidad Football Federation boss Jack Warner.

Of course, Warner was the slimy character who sold 2006 World Cup tickets for a personal profit of at least $1 million.

FIFA has indicated that a fine to the value of the profiteering had been imposed but only $250,000 has been returned so far.

It was depressing to see England's bid team fawning like that over shady FIFA executives, knowing that this was the only way they could get close to winning.

And having done all the arse-kissing, and then produced a near-perfect technical bid, it must have been particularly galling to be dumped out at the first round.

The failure certainly appears to be a personal blow to Prime Minister David Cameron who was heavily involved in the latter stages if the process.

But, while it was painful to see the England bid team including Mr Cameron take FIFA's demands lying down, it is hard to say what more could have been done to improve the bid on a purely technical basis.

And so Labour calls for an independent inquiry simply smacks of crass opportunism.

At least the British press refused to sit completely idle while FIFA wallows in its dirty money and own self-importance.

The Sunday Times was first to strike, capturing footage of two executive members Amos Amadu and Reynald Temarii willing to part with their vote for thousands of pounds in return.

Both were suspended by FIFA - Amadu for three years and Temarii for one - but it is fair to say that the corruption runs deeper than that.

Then, this week, a highly-publicised episode of the BBC's Panorama about FIFA corruption was broadcast.

Despite a big build-up, the episode was not really worth the hype. It barely scratched the surface, largely raking over old ground regarding bribes from FIFA's former marketing company International Sports and Leisure (ISL) which collapsed in 2001.

It did not help that it was fronted by a presenter in Andrew Jennings with such a blatant bias against FIFA, having been banned by the organisation.

This is not the first time Panorama has been caught up too much in the cult of the presenter and Mr Jennings spent most of the time shouting pointlessly in the direction of FIFA executives from across a road in Switzerland.

However, what Mr Jennings did show was that it is possible to be implicated in a scandal like the ISL bribery case and yet still sit at FIFA's top table.

Cameroonian Issa Hayatou, Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz and Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira all voted today among a group of 22 old rich men deciding the fate of the worldwide football audience.

And it must be said that the FIFA executive committee is hardly representative of their audience.

The average age of the all-male committee is 63. The youngest member on the board is 51-year-old Russian Vitaly Mutko, the oldest is Leoz at 82.

Nine of the men are 65 or over including 74-year-old president Sepp Blatter and vice-president Warner, who is 67.

In a depressing way, it seems apt that an organisation as out-of-touch as FIFA has given the World Cup to Russia the day after Wikileaks revealed US diplomatic cables branded Russia a virtual "mafia state".

And in a more unnerving twist, it would seem that FIFA is comfortable with their decision to give the World Cup to a country where anti-government journalists are beaten up on a regular basis, and sometimes even murdered.

Certainly, it comes as no surprise to find that Russia is ranked down at 140 on the press freedom index, actually an improvement on their 159th place in 2009.

Reporters Without Borders which compiles the ranking attributed Russia's 'improvement' to the fact that "there have recently not been any high-profile murders of journalists or human rights defenders in our country".

But its annual report also states: "The system remains as tightly controlled as ever, and impunity reigns unchallenged in cases of violence against journalists."

This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that England's chances of a successful bid were clearly harmed by press intrusion into FIFA affairs.

Effectively, one of the most corrupt organisations in the world has given one World Cup to one of the most corrupt countries in the world and another to an oil-rich emirate in the Middle East.

Sounds about right, really.


HOW THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE VOTED: Round-by-round
*FIFA World Cup 2018 vote
Round one: Russia 9, Spain-Portugal 7, Netherlands-Belgium 4, England 2 - England eliminated
Round two: Russia 13, Spain-Portugal 7, Netherlands-Belgium 2 - Russia won an absolute majority

*FIFA World Cup 2022 vote
Round one: Qatar 11, South Korea 4, Japan 3, United States 3, Australia 1 - Australia eliminated
Round two: Qatar 10, South Korea 5, United States 5, Japan 2 - Japan eliminated
Round three: Qatar 11, United States 6, South Korea 5 - South Korea eliminated
Round four: Qatar 14, United States 8 - Qatar won an absolute majority