World Cup bidders warned to stay away from disgraced pair

By Andrew Warshaw

October 22 – Football’s world governing body has ordered the nine contenders bidding to stage the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 not to make contact with the two suspended Executive Committee members while they are under investigation for alleged bribery.

Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti’s Renauld Temarii were both provisionally suspended by FIFA on Wednesday (October 20) in the unprecedented votes-for-cash scandal.

A letter has now reportedly been sent to the all World Cup contenders asking them to respect the temporary exclusion of Adamu and Temarii, whose votes have been widely coveted.

“FIFA is kindly asking all bidders to respect the actual situation and not to contact the mentioned FIFA Exco members in relation to the bidding,” the letter said, heaping even more embarrassment on the Adamu and Temarii following the Sunday Times expose into World Cup corruption.

The findings of FIFA’s Ethics Committee will be made public in mid-November along with a ruling as to whether Qatar’s 2022 bid committee colluded with a Spain and Portugal’s joint 2018 campaign.

Cash inducements to the 24 Executive Committee members who will make the December 2 decision are strictly outlawed but Adamu claimed he was “not guilty” of any of the allegations in the Sunday Times that prompted the FIFA Ethics Committee probe.

“I’m sure that by the time I come out of this they will know that I’m a very credible person,” he said.

At the same time, Gilberto Madail (pictured), head of the Portuguese football federation, dismissed any claims of collusion between his country’s joint candidature and that of Qatar.

“We categorically deny making any agreement or alliance with another bid on the voting to decide the hosting of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups,” Madail was quoted as saying on his Federation’s website.

Portugal and Spain are jointly bidding to host the 2018 World Cup along with England, Russia and Belgium/Netherlands while Qatar, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Australia are candidates for 2022.

FIFA have steadfastly refused to name either bidder under suspicion, their identity instead provided in off-the-record briefings.

Madail said this was because no-one had done nothing wrong and were simply the victims of innuendo.

“We received with surprise and indignation the analysis that FIFA’s Ethics Committee may conduct on a rumour… circulated in September in the English media about an alleged deal between the Iberian and the Qatari bids for hosting the World Cup,” Madail said.

In another twist to the scandal, it emerged that Blatter had personally met Qatari Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani this week.

The meeting, confirmed by FIFA, is understood to have been arranged well before the decision to look into Qatar’s bidding behaviour but could be highly significant in terms of the end result.

Prince Tamim, 30, is President of Qatar’s Olympic Committee and, like Blatter, a member of the International Olympic Committee, world sport’s most exclusive club.

The Prince’s personal intervention suggests that the Gulf state is still pursuing its bid at a high level, in spite of recent setbacks, not least when Harold Mayne-Nicholls, head of the FIFA technical inspection team, claimed in September that hosting the tournament in Qatar would present “logistical challenges”.

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