England Accusing FIFA of Lying

Added by Tania Sullivan on December 4, 2010

With Russia securing a landslide victory in Thursday’s 2018 World Cup announcement, FIFA is being accused of lying to the English bid leaders, says the Daily Mail.

Having secured only two votes, London mayor and bid ambassador Boris Johnson are questioning the integrity of FIFA’s 22-man executive committee; “FIFA can’t last in its current form,” Johnson said.

According to bid leader Andy Anson, England were led to believe that they had more than six votes, “People who promised us their vote obviously went the other way,” he said. He added that the £3 million spent on England’s technical reports had gone down the drain, while the two bids with the worst technical reports, according to Anson, ended up winning their bids.

Bid board member and former Conservative cabinet enforce, Brian Mawhinney, was “utterly perplexed” by the outcome of the vote, and questioned whether the process ought to be changed ahead of the next voting process.

Many also believe that Britain’s own press, specifically BBC’s Panorama programme, covering FIFA cash-for-votes accusations, had an impact on the voting. Junji Ogura, Japan – assumed to be England’s only supported on top of Thompson, argued: “England was eliminated in the first round and they were maybe affected by the BBC and the Sunday Times reporting.”

Summing things up, Anson was asked whether he thinks that FIFA does not like England, to which he answered “I don’t think they do.”