FIFA was rocked by new allegations of corruption on Tuesday as the former head of England’s 2018 World Cup bid accused senior officials of demanding cash and honours in return for votes. In an explosive session of a British parliamentary committee, six members of FIFA’s graft-tainted executive were accused of involvement in bribery before last year’s votes to decide the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.
British lawmaker Damian Collins said the hearing had received evidence FIFA vice-president Issa Hayatou from Cameroon and Jacques Anouma from the Ivory Coast received bribes of 1.5 million dollars to vote for Qatar’s 2022 bid. In separate testimony, Lord David Triesman, the chairman of England’s 2018 bid until his resignation in May last year, accused four FIFA officials of “improper and unethical” behaviour ahead of last December’s vote in Zurich.
“These were some of the things that were put to me personally, sometimes in the presence of others, which in my view did not represent proper and ethical behaviour on the part of members of the executive committee,” Triesman said. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is fighting for re-election as head of world football’s governing body, immediately vowed to address the latest allegations. “If this is true, I will fight this,” Sky Sports reported Blatter as saying.
“I am fighting for FIFA to clean FIFA. I cannot answer for individual members of our committee. I cannot say if they are all angels or if they are all devils.” Triesman revealed that Jack Warner, the influential head of the North and Central American federation CONCACAF, had demanded to be paid directly around £2.5 million (4m dollars) for construction of schools in Trinidad. Triesman, who had met Warner along with England 2018 deputy chairman Sir Dave Richards, said the request was rejected immediately.
“I said immediately the proposition was out of the question. Sir Dave said ‘You must be joking Jack. You’re probably talking about £2.5 million.’ “Jack nodded at that. He said that the money could be channelled through him and he would guarantee the funds would be appropriately spent.”