2018 Bid Team Writes To Fifa Ahead Of Vote

England’s 2018 World Cup bid committee has written to members of FIFA in a bid to distance itself from the British media after reports of alleged corruption appeared in a newspaper.

The Sunday Times reported that alleged corruption was happening in the bidding process to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

The bid team have now asked FIFA to make its decision based purely on the qualities of the bids submitted.

Although a member of the FIFA executive committee previously claimed there would be no backlash against England, the letter would appear to indicate that The Sunday Times probe into two members of the FIFA committee has hindered England’s challenge ahead of the vote on 2nd December.

England’s bid team has not given up all hope of turning the situation around but the source quoted stated that the prospect of any future media investigations into the conduct of FIFA officials – including a potential Panorama programme on the BBC – could be fatal for their chances.

The bid team source is quoted as saying: ‘The question is: can we recover from this? FIFA members feel they are being persecuted by the British media.

‘It isn’t dead and the next two or three weeks will be delicate but England’s bid has been damaged and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to repair that damage.’

FIFA president Sepp Blatter signalled the start of a backlash against the British media when he said: ‘One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply rooted problem (with the English media).’

‘Who is benefitting from this situation and who is being harmed, we are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that.’