FIFA Delegate Asked for a Knighthood to Vote for England

The man who was in charge of the campaign to bring England the World Cup in 2018 has alleged that four FIFA delegates asked for money to vote for England.

Lord Triesman was the head of England’s campaign until details of private comments about rival bids were leaked.

He claims that FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, Ricardo Teixeira, Nicolas Leoz, and Worawi Makudi solicited bribes to vote for England.

Requests included money, TV rights and most bizarrely even a knighthood from the British crown.

Nicolas Leoz from Paraguay in South America and Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira were two of the officials accused of corruption in Andrew Jennings’ Panorama program ‘FIFA’s Dirty Secrets’ for the BBC. Makudi is from the Thai federation.

Triesman was speaking to a committee of the UK House of Commons, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. He admitted that the England bid team kept quiet about the approach because they thought the revelations would hamper England’s chances of securing the Cup.

Sepp Blatter who is in the throes of his re-election campaign was quick to react.

“I was shocked but one has to see the evidence. They are coming from other confederations, so I cannot say that they are all angels or all devils.

There is a new round of information. Give us time to digest that and start the investigation by asking for evidence on what has been said.

We will react immediately against all those in breach of the ethics code rules.

Zero tolerance is going through FIFA, it is one of the items on the Congress. It is my battle horse.”

Blatter is being opposed by head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)Mohamed Bin Hammam. but is thought to be the favourite to win after announcing he would retire in 2015.

England’s bid received only two votes, one from their own delegate and Triesman admitted that the failure to divulge the demands for bribes was both strategically and ethically wrong:

“I think, in retrospect, we would have burned off our chances. In retrospect, that was not the right view to take and I accept that.”

Jack Warner hit back at the accusations on Sky Sports News:

“I’ve never asked Triesman nor any other person, Englishman or otherwise, for any money for my vote at any time. In the English campaign, before Triesman was unceremoniously kicked out, I’ve spoken to him on his initiative on only three occasions, while I’ve spoken to his other colleagues on other occasions and not one of them will ever corroborate his bit of trivia.”

I have been in FIFA for 29 years and this will astound many, I’m sure – including people like David Dein [international president of England 2018 bid]and Geoff Thompson [head of England’s 2018 bid].”

There were more accusations flying in London. Two Members of Parliament claimed the committee had heard that FIFA vice-president Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, and Jacques Anouma, from the Ivory Coast, were involved. He claimed they were paid $1.5m t vote for Qatar who won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

The member for the Kent constituency of Folkestone and Hythe, Conservative Damian Collins said that the Sunday Times newspaper had submitted the evidence and that the parliamentary committee would publish it.

This has more resonance because it was upon evidence published in the Sunday Times that FIFA suspended two voting FIFA delegates last year.

Nigerian delegate Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti were banned from all football activities for three years and fined $10,130 for breaches of five articles of FIFA’s ethics code including one on bribery after the English paper exposed them.

They were banned from voting on the World Cup hosting, reducing the 24 man panel to 22.

The Times report accused Adamu of demanding $750,000, half of that up front, to build four artificial football pitches in Nigeria, his home country.

Temarii, who represents the Oceania confederation, was alleged to have requested $2.3m for a sports academy to be built in the region.

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