Exclusive: Makudi fails to follow through on threat of suing Triesman over England 2018 allegations

By Andrew Warshaw

September 25 – FIFA’s under-fire Executive Committee member Worawi Makudi has failed to follow up his threat to sue former English Football Association chairman Lord Triesman over allegations of corruption involving last December’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup ballots.

Triesman told a Parliamentary hearing in May that Makudi had demanded television rights to a proposed Thailand-England friendly in exchange for supporting England’s bid to host the 2018 tournament that eventually went to Russia.

Makudi said at the time that the accusations were “not true and groundless” but insideworldfootball understands that despite threatening to take legal action, Makudi has still not filed charges against Triesman for the bribery accusations.

Triesman was forced to resign as chairman of the FA and head of England’s World Cup bid as a a result of a newspaper sting a year before making his accusations.

But his claims against Makudi and three other FIFA voting members made worldwide headlines.

Sources have told insideworldfootball that Makudi cannot sue Triesman because of the circumstances under which the claims were made.

“Those kinds of threats don’t mean anything because the claims were made under Parliamentary privilige,” said one source.

“It removes anything from litigation.”

More recently, Makudi, head of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), faced more claims of underhand behaviour over whether development funds he received from FIFA were spent on land he owns.

Football’s world governing body asked him to clarify newspaper reports that $860,000 (£548,000/€630,000) in grants were spent on a football training facility and another building, both on land belonging to Makudi in Bangkok.

Makudi says the land had been transferred to the FAT and that the accusations “tainted my reputation.”

FIFA is currently reviewing documents received from Makudi but last week warned he would face an Ethics Committee investigation “should there be any evidence of any potential breach” of the rules.

The GOAL project, created by FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 1999, allocates millions of dollars each year to fund football in less-developed nations.

Makudi, 59, has been a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee for 14 years and is a close ally of Mohamed Bin Hammam, banned for life in July over the infamous cash-for-votes scandal.

It is believed he accompanied bin Hammam to Trinidad where Caribbean officials were allegedly offered $40,000 (£25,000/€29,000) in cash to back the Qatari’s challenge – which was subsequently withdrawn – for the FIFA presidency.

Interestingly, it was Bin Hammam, before his ban, who chaired the committee allocating GOAL project funds.

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