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PA Wire/Press Association Images
England 2018 World CUp Bid International President David Dein (left), David Beckham (centre) and Prince William arrive at the Announcement of the FIFA World Cup 2018/2022 Host Cities Anthony Devlin/backpagepix/Press Association Images
Zurich - The five Fifa executives who betrayed England over the hosting of the 2018 World Cup were exposed on Saturday night as the English FA went into meltdown.
Acting chairman Roger Burden is so disgusted by events in Zurich that he has withdrawn his application for the permanent post, claiming he wants nothing more to do with football politics.
The FA will also cancel next June’s friendly against Thailand in Bangkok, which had been set up to secure the vote of Fifa’s Worawi Makudi.
Now the identities of the guilty men can be revealed. Led by the hugely influential Jack Warner, arguably the biggest rogue in the Fifa gallery, the others were Korea’s Chung Mong-joon, the Ivory Coast’s Jacques Anouma, Marios Lefkaritis of Cyprus and Turkey’s Senes Erzik.
The first four pledged their support to the Three Lions – Prince William, Prime Minister David Cameron and David Beckham. Erzik gave his repeated backing to England’s ExCo member Geoff Thompson, the last time just an hour before the ballot. England secured only two of the 22 available votes on Thursday, and bid leaders blamed Fifa ExCo members who had promised their support .
Concacaf president Warner even put an arm around Prince William and said: “You have my vote.”
On Saturday, Fifa came under fire from US President Barack Obama, who said it was “the wrong decision” to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, and it is the level of treachery that has made Burden walk away.
He said: “The role entails liaising closely with Fifa and I want nothing more to do with them. I am not prepared to deal with people I cannot trust. It’s not the way I am used to doing business. Making promises to the future King of England and the Prime Minister and not keeping their word ...”
The sordid process has made the FA consider their entire approach to the international game. Discussions are due to take place with other federations who feel equally disturbed by events this week, among them Spain, the US and Australia. Last night there was even talk of a possible breakaway coalition ready to challenge Fifa.
The FA, meanwhile, will take a close look at the £600000 (R6,6-million) a year they contribute to football development aid around the world. While it will not be totally withdrawn, there will be a review of where it goes.
High-level sources believe Fifa’s next move will be to try to move the World Cup to January, particularly with the 2022 tournament being in Qatar, where summer temperatures can top 50º C.
Lefkaritis, the ExCo member from Cyprus, said the feedback from other members was that the media investigations had been a factor.
On Saturday, bid team leader Andy Anson said:
“They are going to see this as England complaining. But Obama speaking out about the process is pretty formidable.
“When you get the leaders of some of the top countries in the world questioning the process then I think they have to take a look at themselves.”
Anson did not believe the UK media cost England the vote, but did confirm that Fifa president Sepp Blatter had warned his ExCo colleagues of the “evil of the British media” just before the voting began. – Daily Mail
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Anonymous, wrote
Blimey, wrote
Suck it up england,you are not the only country in the world!!Start a new world cup competition!!!!
Georgev, wrote
If FIFA is known to be corrupt why do the countries that are now groaning bib for the Cup? Is it not sour grapes because they lost? Is it also not fair to give other countries the opportunity to be ripped off?
Mal, wrote
"Lied to the future king of England". Oh no! How terrible, such an IMPORTANT person. Who the hell cares about the future king of England. Obama has criticised the process, even worse, let's all shiver and shake. Blatter and Co are all crooks, that's not news, but so are all the rest of them. The only difference between them and our clowns is that ours are too stupid to cover it as well as they do.
LB, wrote
England lost because they piss off everyone with their holier than thou attitude. Their media are lie-mongers who spend all their time insulting other nationalities. They deserved what they got. So the Americans and Brits cannot manipulate one facet of our lives?? God bless FIFA!!!!!
Anonymous, wrote
dude, what are you on about? "hundreds of years of colonialism", is that a joke? Do you include Italy, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, France, United States, Germany, Austria, ZULULAND and about 150 other countries in that statement? Laughable ignorance.
colinA, wrote
septic bladder just added a billion more in his bank account.i would love to know how much he is worth
dude, wrote
The argument is valid, lying to the future king of england I believe is quite cheap in itself and even worse Sepp Blatter's comments towards Britain is bias. Imagine the uproar if he made similar comments about RSA before the voting process. "Beware of the evils of SA crime"... which i believe is far worse compared to the British media. However, perhaps this is payback in a sense for hundreds of years of colonialism. The English are not know to accept defeat. There is always something or someone to blame.
Anonymous, wrote
Fifa is the mafia in disguise, they have ripped off countries all over the world that have hosted the world cup, South African taxpayers had to fork out 30 billion dollar in loans to build stadiums that they cannot maintain , most are to become white elephants, the Fifa executive had a mandate from the South African government , they were not to be taxed on the money made. I suspect this is the reason why Qatar got the world cup, because they could give the government there ultimatums that the Aussie , English, American and Japanese governments would not even think about. A rival body needs to be set up to give these crooks a run for their money. They are liars and thieves.
Living in exile, wrote
So, when are they going to get out their long handled shit pit shovels and investigate Mr Khoza,a known criminal and fraudster, and his whole entourage for the 2010 session. Lets hope the British press are now pissed off enough to do some real investigative reporting. Pity they did not follow through on tne arms deal.
sipho syphfliss, wrote
so stop all the whinging amd set up a tottaly new world Soccer assoc, in compettition to fifa , as we all know they are a bunch of crooks who will fall for the highest bid, or whoever is prepared to give the best kick backs. eish
James Foley, wrote
What else can you expect from a game where the players openly take a dive to fake a foul just so that they can hopefully get awarded a penalty or have somebody of the opposing team sent off?
Dread69, wrote
Unbelievable! I'm sure a number of countries were told 'you have my vote'. Perhaps that was said just before ' and thank you for that lovely meal and £200.00 bottle of champagne...'. England is not the first country to not get the world cup (even though you believed is was your God given right) when you worked so hard for it - and you certainly wont be the last. Just stop crying about it. Take it on the chin and move on.
Candy Dapax, wrote
Anonymous, wrote
If Blatter feels the TV expose of him and his gang of slimy crooks was factually wrong and libelous, why are they not on the phone to their lawyers to sue ... All I have heard from FIFA about the BBC's panorama program and the times newspaper expose is that "it is wrong and they dont like us" ... pretty feeble retort all in all I must say. The BBC (especially Panorama) is on the whold pretty scrupulous about the content of their documentaries as they have taken on some formidable organisations over the decades, their stuff far from speculation and gutter press muck raking or else they would be on the end of a law suit by now. The lack of any coherent , substantative and detailed denial of the accusations by FIFA speaks volumes in itsel , Herr Blatter and his whole gang of thieves have been causght with their pants down and their hands in the collective till and thats about the long and the short of it ... expect to see a flurry of resignations from the FIFA HQ in coming months as a lot of the minions will not want ot be associated with the stink of corruption that will get stronger from here on in
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