By Samindra Kunti
November 3 – The Belgian FA KBVB is considering launching a claim for damages at FIFA after Sepp Blatter’s revelations about a possible fixed agreement to award the 2018 FIFA World Cup to Russia.
“It makes my stomach churn in the sense that we believed in the bid Belgium-The Netherlands,” Belgian federation president Francois De Keersmaecker (pictured) told Insideworldfootball in February in a reaction to the former FIFA investigator Michel Garcia’s report, as presented by judge Eckert’s summary.
“Ultimately I don’t know what the incriminating evidence is. But if these World Cups have been awarded in an inappropriate manner to Qatar and Russia, then we will try to do something about it. I think we will take legal action to possibly obtain damages.”
Following Sepp Blatter’s comments in an interview with Russian press agency Tass, the KBVB is cautiously reconsidering possible steps to claim damages for the costs incurred by their joint-bidding committee with The Netherlands.
Together the Low Lands spent about €10 million on their campaign to bring the World Cup to their shores, a relatively modest figure compared to the €29 million that England spent to eventually get just their one vote from the FIFA Executive Committee members. The English are also considering a claim.
“We stick to our point of view that if fraud is proven in the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 [World Cups] we will consult our partners to file a claim at FIFA,” KBVB officials told local media. “The recent statements by Sepp Blatter give a bad feeling in regards to the decision-making process. We put our trust in the Ethics Committee of FIFA and the Swiss court to bring the whole truth to light.”
In contrast Michel d’Hooghe, the Belgan FIFA executive member who voted for his own country’s joint bid with the Netherlands, has poured doubt on whether the vote was fixed in the way Blatter had suggested, saying that he thinks he would have known as he was on the committee.
D’Hooghe told Insidewordfootball last week: “I cannot believe this is true or that there was any kind of agreement…I was not part of any such discussion and think I would have known about it.”
Both bids for 2018 and 2022 were by secret ballot and Blatter also revealed that for 2022, four European votes switched from the USA to Qatar.
“How does he know that if the vote was held in secret?” asked d’Hooghe, the 69-year-old chairman of FIFA’s medical committee. “I don’t know why Blatter is saying these things. Maybe you should ask him. I was never ever once influenced how to vote. I voted with full freedom.”
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