By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
November 30 – UEFA president Michel Platini has played down a BBC investigation into alleged corruption within FIFA and says it should not affect England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup.
The Panorama programme last night accused three FIFA Executive Committee members – African Confederation President Issa Hayatou, of Cameroon, Brazil’s Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay – of taking bribes, and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner of attempting to sell World Cup tickets to touts.
All four sit on the FIFA Executive Committee that will decide on Thursday (December 2) who gets the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but Platini said he did not think the screening would hurt England’s bid.
Speaking shortly after the broadcast, Platini told reporters: “I don’t think this [programme] will have an effect, no – but I think what will affect the decision is the atmosphere going back a long time and what people have been writing about FIFA in the British press for many years.
“People who have already taken their [voting] decisions did so long ago, though I don’t know what they were.”
Warner’s importance to the England bid is such that Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to meet him personally before the vote.
The Panorama programme has been roundly criticised over the timing of the screening as the allegations all relate to payments made years ago by the collapsed company ISL, which had been awarded the marketing rights to successive World Cups by FIFA.
England’s international bid spokesman David Dein joked the broadcast should have been shown on the “History Channel” such was its attempt to go over old ground.
Meantime, an official England 2018 statement said: “We stand by our previous position that the BBC’s Panorama did nothing more than rake over a series of historical allegations none of which are relevant to the current bidding process.
“It should be seen as an embarrassment to the BBC.”
Panorama defended its position, countering: “The programme is in the public interest and shows that some FIFA executives involved in making decisions about the 2018 bid have a history of taking bribes and that FIFA has consistently failed to act.
“Delay until after the bid was not an option once it became clear that the winning nations might have been chosen by officials with a proven track record of corruption.
“The programme has uncovered new evidence linking current, long-serving members of the FIFA executive committee with systemic corruption.”
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