By David Gold at Westminster
May 10 – Former England 2018 bid chief Lord Triesman reflected that he would have advised the FA not to bid for the World Cup if he knew then what he knew now and defended the British media’s role in uncovering corruption in FIFA.
Speaking at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee into England’s failed World Cup bid, Triesman addressed a range of issues.
On England’s bid, he revealed that legacy had not been considered by the FA and that FIFA had encouraged them to bid for the World Cup on commercial grounds.
“When we first embarked on the bid we were encouraged by Jerome Valcke [FIFA’s General Secretary] to bid because he believed it would be valuable to ensure a sound commercial bid was put forward.”
Reflecting on the merits of ensuring the World Cup delivered a legacy and was taken to new parts of the world, Triesman admitted that “we did not consider the importance of geographical considerations.
“If we had I would have advised the FA not to make a bid.”
Triesman indicated that England should have been told the criteria of the bid at the start so that they did not waste money applying for a project they were bound to lose.
“What is required is to set out properly the criteria.
“If what you are being asked for is at odds with what you can do then you may not enter.”
Referring to the publication of revelations by the Sunday Times that two members of the FIFA Executive Committee, Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, were willing to accept bribes for their vote, he said: “The Sunday Times and Panorama quite rightly published what they knew.
“If it can be stood up by investigative journalism, then it cannot be right for FIFA to ignore that.”
MPs probed the Lord on what he thought FIFA should do to reform.
“FIFA should have a wider electorate, that would help,” Triesman responded.
“It should also have a proper ethics committee with explicit powers.”
In retrospect, Triesman also admitted that England’s bid was probably doomed before the Sunday Times revelations.
He suggested that this meant England’s bid went from being in a place “which was not a winning position to a very bad losing spot.”
The former 2018 bid chief also admitted that more should be done to work with UEFA and FIFA, and he went on to confirm that England had hired a private security firm to monitor their rivals during the campaign.
“I don’t think there was any improper activity in getting knowledge of what other bids were up to.
“It was done with my knowledge and was open and transparent.”
The former FA chief went on to admit that he regretted the manner of his departure from the Football Association.
Transcripts from secret tapes of him accusing the Spain-Portugal 2018 World Cup bid were published in a Sunday newspaper last year, leading to his departure from the FA.
“It was a very light hearted discussion about things people talk about.
“Of course I regret it, you don’t expect things like that to come out.”
It was also revealed that then Prime Minister Gordon Brown pushed England to bid for the World Cup.
“He did not give an ultimatum but he announced it before the FA considered it.”
Triesman went on to speak of the difficulties in getting the Premier League to support the World Cup bid, and amid criticism from Mike Lee that the head of the FA should not also lead the bid team, he claimed that he only took on the role reluctantly.
“It took a long time to get the Premier League on board.
“Richard Scudamore put it to me that if I thought the 39th game was a good idea they would have come on board much earlier.
“I was told I had to chair the bid.
“We were told two things were paramount; that the government stood absolutely behind the bid at Prime Ministerial level, and that the domestic FA must be seen as 100% supportive of it.
“My life was very full and I had done a lot of travelling as a foreign minister.
“I took that role after having a detailed discussion with the FA.”
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