By David Gold
October 5 – The chief executive of England’s failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, Andy Anson, has mocked FIFA’s response to a string of corruption allegations this year and says that he does not have faith in their ability to reform themselves.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who won a fourth term earlier this year – which he has said will be his last – is set to announce long awaited reforms to the organisation later this month following a difficult year for FIFA.
Before the decision on the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was made Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu, members of the Executive Committee, were suspended after an undercover investigation by the Sunday Times found that they were willing to sell their votes for bribes.
And former Asian chief Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned for life for his involvement in an attempt to bribe North American delegates to vote for him in the presidential election, a scandal which also saw Jack Warner resign from the vice-presidency he had held for more than a decade.
Anson told Sky News that Blatter’s proposal for a solutions committee involving the likes of opera legend Plácido Domingo and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was “laughable”.
“As a response to what were incredibly serious allegations at the time, to come up with something that seemed so superficial actually cemented the view in people’s minds that FIFA does not have the level of credibility or integrity it needs to run this game,” he added.
“It’s a prolonged crisis and I think it’s something that has been going on far too long.
“FIFA need to put an end to all the rumours because there’s always been this issue about what’s true and what’s a rumour.
“FIFA know all about the rumours and it doesn’t do them any good.”
“The fact that we are having people just running for election time and time again, staying in office, creating their own personal fiefdoms within the world of FIFA, that’s not healthy.
“I don’t have faith [that they will reform], because they have no record to date of actually taking this issue seriously enough.
“But you would hope that losing someone with the experience of Bin Hammam, with Jack Warner having to resign and move away from FIFA, that they will suddenly realise this is an incredibly serious issue.
“The whole world is watching and waiting in a way.
“There’s a lot of people watching, a lot of people anticipating, but I have to say I think most people anticipating are not waiting for great results because FIFA have not had a track record of taking this issue seriously in the past.”
Anson, along with the entire team who fought in the last few days of the 2018 bid in Zurich, which included Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham, were left shocked when England lost their bid in the first round with just two votes, one of which was from Briton Geoff Thompson, the then FIFA vice-president.
After the vote, Anson said: “We felt we had more than six, maybe seven or eight votes – enough to take us through to the second round of voting.
“If I hadn’t voted for them I’d find it hard to lie to people that I had, but maybe we are too honest.”
Anson also called for changes to the voting procedure, attacking the decision to hold votes on two World Cup hosts at the same time, with Qatar winning the right to hold the 2022 tournament.
FIFA has since admitted that this was an error and would not hold two votes concurrently in the future.
“Having only 22 guys voting gives them too much influence,” said the former Manchester United commercial director.
“Running two bids together was clearly a huge mistake.
“Everyone who had a vote and a bid clearly wanted to trade that vote for something that helped them get over the line in that campaign.
“Australia had a very good bid and they got one vote, we had a very good bid and we got two, the USA had an unbelievably strong technical bid and got three.
“Six votes in the first round between those three, there’s something not quite right.
“David Dein considers many of these guys long-term friends, what has happened has shocked us all.”
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