The World Cup bid programme has moved into a new chapter this week with the news that the bids for Spain-Portugal for 2018 and Qatar for 2022 are the subject of a FIFA inquiry launched after corruption allegations were made against two FIFA executive committee members. Amos Adamu from Nigeria and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii, who have been executive committee members since 2006 and 2004 respectively, being stung by a Sunday newspaper undercover investigation. The pair have now been provisionally suspended pending a full hearing next month, Temarii accused of asking for £1.5 million from undercover Sunday Times journalists to build a sports academy, Adamu then accused of asking for £500,000 for a "personal project", with half of the sum to be paid upfront. While four other FIFA officials filmed by the Sunday Times - Slim Aloulou, Amadou Diakite, Ahongalu Fusimalohi and Ismael Bhamjee - have also been suspended. As far as that quartet are concerned former Botswana football administrator Bhamjee has the most chequered past as in 2006 he admitted selling 12 tickets at three times their face value for the World Cup match between England and Trinidad & Tobago in Nuremberg. Bhamjee therefore resigning from numerous posts he held as part of the 24-man FIFA committee, the Botswanian also being an honorary member of the Confederation of African Football's executive committee and the President of the Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations. Former Tunisian Football Federation President Aloulou served on FIFA's Executive Committee from 1988 to 1994 and, somewhat ironically given the allegations, heads the ethics commission of the Arab Football Union. Meanwhile Malian Diakite has been a FIFA Executive member since 1998 and Fusimalohi serves as the General Secretary of the Tonga Football Association and was was appointed to the FIFA Executive Committee in 2002. FIFA ethics committee chairman Claudio Sulser commenting on the suspensions as a whole: "The decision to provisionally suspend these officials is fully justified and should not be put in question. The evidence that has been presented to us today has led us to take this provisional measure. It is crucial to protect the integrity of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process. We are determined to have zero tolerance for any breach of the code of ethics." Their suspensions currently last for 30 days and can also be extended by a further 20 days, with an announcement on the investigation into the six officials likely to come in mid-November. FIFA hoping to conclude the inquiry into Spain-Portugal and Qatar's alleged vote trading at the same time, with FIFA still confident that the vote on World Cup 2018 is still likely to go ahead by the scheduled date of December 2nd. Bad news for some people is good news for others though with Spain-Portugal in the spotlight of the allegations. The joint-Iberian bid being one of four European ones that could host the FIFA World Cup in the 2018, the tournament now definitely being held on this continent, with the United States withdrawing their bid last week and the Australians having pulled their efforts as far back as June. That leaving Russia, England, Belgium-Netherlands and Spain-Portugal as the only possible 2018 hosts now. The main accusation against the Spain-Portugal 2018 and Qatar 2022 bids being that the two campaigns agreed to trade blocs of votes for each other in an effort to take home the bacon on two fronts. FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke saying on the allegations: "We got the information a few weeks ago, and there have been rumours saying that it definitely took place. We said that we should ask the ethics committee to look at the case." Meanwhile FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who we know is never short of a word to say on any subject, rejected claims at a press conference in Zurich that FIFA is corrupt, Blatter telling journalists that society is full of devils: "It is a sad day for football because it's a sad day in life and you cannot have always sunny days. Our society is full of devils and these devils you find them in football. "We have to fight for fair play, we have to fight for respect and especially we have to fight that the people in charge of FIFA behave as they should do and if this is not the case then we have to intervene. As the president of FIFA I appeal to and I expect all members not only of the FIFA executive committee but all members of the FIFA family to behave in an honest, sincere and respectful manner. "We have the necessary tools to intervene when necessary and that is what we have done today. I was a little bit surprised that you say: 'Is FIFA corrupt?' FIFA is actually, in the world of sport, a well recognised organisation and institution and, if there are some activities that are against the ethics and the morals, that's why the ethics committee came in." There are many people out there who would disagree that FIFA isn't corrupt though, with Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, who perhaps isn't the best person to ask for a sensible soundbite, earlier this year saying: "FIFA is a corrupted organisation. They have a monopoly position in the world of football and are saving billions of dollars. Additionally, they are supporting modern slavery." One of the longest and most vehement opponents of the way FIFA works has been reporter Andrew Jennings whose Panorama show in October 2007 shocked many across the football world, Jennings reputedly the only reporter in the world currently banned from Sepp Blatter's press conferences. His website HERE is certainly an interesting one, and while he seemingly has a slightly obsessive bee in his bonnet regarding FIFA, the site is definitely worth a look for some intriguing articles. |