It is less than 20 days now before the FIFA Executive Committee vote on which nations win the right to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals. Australia, of course, is in the running to stage the 2022 event.
And most nations are still trying to wipe off the mud from the recent controversies about vote buying, vote swapping and collusion.
England 2018 bid leaders are so concerned that they have sent a letter to all FIFA executive committee members to try to repair the damage caused by two recent media investigations and stings into World Cup bidding irregularities.
The letter, from England 2018’s chairman Geoff Thompson, who is also a FIFA and UEFA vice-president, and bid international president David Dein, attempts to distance the campaign from the Sunday Times and BBC Panorama investigations.
The members of the 24-man FIFA executive committee are assured the organisation would receive a positive reception from the British media should England win the bid for the 2018 tournament against Spain/Portugal, Russia and Holland/Belgium.
England 2018 admit the Sunday Times sting, which has led to FIFA members facing an ethics committee hearing this week, caused significant harm to their campaign and they fear a Panorama programme to be screened three days before the vote could cripple their bid.
The letter states among other things: “We hope England’s bid will not be judged negatively due to the activities of individual media organisations, regardless of one’s view of their conduct. We hope you appreciate that we have no control over the British media.”
Also, in a potentially serious blow to Qatar’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup finals of 2022, a FIFA Executive committee member confirmed reports of a note-passing incident involving Spain’s Angel Maria Villar-Llona and AFC President and Qatar FIFA power broker Mohamed Bin Hammam during last month’s FIFA Executive meeting.
According to reports in Swiss newspaper Taegs Anzeiger, after FIFA president Sepp Blatter suggested that there would be no further action on the allegations of vote-collusion, Villar-Llona passed a note to Mohammed Bin Hammam.
It said: “Congratulations, vamos a ganar” [We are going to win]. Bin Hammam then asked the USA’s Chuck Blazer to translate the note, as he does not speak Spanish.
Spain and Qatar are purportedly under investigation by FIFA’s ethics committee after speculation that the two countries had cut a deal to support each other. Some will see these revelations as confirmation of wrongdoing.
The incident will nevertheless cause fresh embarrassment for Qatar, Spain and FIFA, not least given that Blazer’s USA bid is doing battle with Qatar, he was asked to translate and that the note was passed by Belgian Michel D’Hooge.
The Belgian’s home nation, in partnership with Holland, is fighting it out for the right to host 2018 with Spain-Portugal.
With under three weeks still left to go, who knows what other revelations will come out of the woodwork and if they have an influence on the outcome.
Australia is trying very hard to keep its nose clean in the run in to the vote on December 2, while all around them are being watched with distrust and suspicion.
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