Fifa Ethics Committee Central To 2018 Bids

World football governing body FIFA has announced that its Ethics Committee, chaired by London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe, will play a central role in the bidding process to host the 2018 World Cup – a tournament England is one of the frontrunners to stage.

FIFA has declared that its independent judicial body had agreed at its plenary meeting to broaden its remit in order to fully involve itself in the bidding process ensuring that all activity is fair and above board and not hindered by political manoeuvring.

In future, in addition to the member associations, the confederations and the executive committee, the chairman and the deputy chairman of the Ethics Committee will, at their discretion, also have the ability to seek clarification on issues brought to them through channels and avenues other than those stipulated in the FIFA Code of Ethics.

With respect to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Ethics Committee agreed that as a whole it should have a pivotal function in overseeing the bidding for FIFA’s flagship competition.

As FIFA will be developing the protocol for the bidding, the chairman of the Ethics Committee has been asked to define the relevant principles to oversee this procedure and will include members of this body to perform the task. In the case of issues arising on a particular bid, Ethics Committee members of that country may step aside so as to avoid conflicts of interest.

England is one of a number of nations to have declared an interest in staging the 2018 World Cup with Spain and Russia amongst the other bidders.