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FIFA must delay amid controversy
THE latest destructive allegations of voting malpractice within FIFA’s executive committee surely means the election of the World Cup’s host nations in 2018 and 2022 should be postponed for six months.
The vote is due to go ahead on December 2 but FIFA’s ethics commission has little alternative other than to recommend a delay.
Yesterday’s fresh allegations in the Sunday Times appear to implicate former general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen.
They are so serious the December 2 vote’s credibility has been shot to pieces. More than a quarter of the 24-man voting executive are now facing an inquiry.
Allegedly, Zen-Ruffinen accepted a letter of engagement, was willing to work for undercover journalists posing as an agency seeking to support the USA bid 2022, and supplied names of executive members whose vote could allegedly be bought. A key element is that Zen-Ruffinen’s comments imply that such malpractice has been common at the highest level for some years.
It must be improper that a tournament worth £3billion to a host should be decided amid this scandal and before the allegations can be properly investigated.
Zen-Ruffinen, 51, is said to have written to the Sunday Times saying his comments were “impressions” and that he is “totally against” bribery. Yet his recorded information to the undercover team, for a proposed fee of over £200,000, could hardly be more explicit .
He appears to suggest asking one member for his terms “for voting for a specific country”. Another’s vote could be sought “with ladies, not money” and another, “the biggest gangster on earth”, who would want $500,000. It is a picture of administrative disintegration.
With FIFA’s continuing investigations involving England’s 2018 rival Spain/Portugal and with Vladimir Putin reportedly reluctant to attend the vote in Zurich because Russia are uncertain to be elected for 2018, there has to be breathing space for FIFA.
(David Miller is the holder of FIFA's Centenary Jules Rimet award for lifetime coverage of world football).