FIFA'S CAN OF WORMS: PEOPLE N CORRUPTIONS

Posted: May 11, 2011

Six FIFA Members Accused Of Seeking Bribes

Six FIFA executive committee members were accused of ethical misconduct in the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups during a British parliamentary hearing into football on Tuesday. Member of Parliament Damian Collins said unpublished evidence from a newspaper investigation shows that Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were paid $1.5 million to vote for Qatar. The Gulf nation beat the United

States in the final round of voting for the 2022 tournament in December.

The conduct of Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi in the 2018 contest was described as “improper and unethical” by the former head of England’s bid.

The allegations were made in the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons, which is looking at England’s failed bid for the 2018 World Cup as part of a wider inquiry into football governance.

David Triesman, who resigned as chairman of England’s Football Association and its 2018 bid team last May, made the allegations about Warner, Leoz, Teixeira and Makudi to the committee. He claimed that Warner, a FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president from Trinidad and Tobago, asked for 2.5 million pounds to build an education center in Trinidad and for 500,000 pounds to buy Haiti’s World Cup TV rights.

Triesman also said that Leoz, of Paraguay, asked for an honorary knighthood, while Makudi of Thailand allegedly wanted to receive the money from English TV for them to broadcast a planned friendly against the country.

In Zurich, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said he will ask for evidence of the claims made in the committee hearing and forward any allegations to the FIFA ethics committee. “I cannot say they are all angels or they are all devils,” he said of the executive members.