One must feel a degree of sympathy for the England 2018 World Cup bid team. Months of hard work might all count for nothing just three days before international football governing body Fifa announce the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 tournament.
BBC's Panorama on Monday (November 29) revealed that three senior Fifa officials, who will vote on Thursday, took bribes from a sports marketing firm. It alleges that Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira were offered money by the now-defunct International Sport and Leisure (ISL) company, to gain World Cup rights to market the tournament.
Panorama uncovered the murky world of corruption in Fifa, and looked into Hayatou's dealings. The programme showed details of 100,000 French francs paid to Hayatou, the Fifa vice-president.
Leoz, the head of the South American football confederation, was shown to have taken payment totalling $600,000 (£384,000) in three installments of $200,000. Secret ISL documents obtained clarified a list of 175 secret payments.
However, Teixeira was marked as a serious figure in bribery claims, with 21 secret payments received by a Liechtenstein fronbeen t company called Sanud totalling $9.5m (£6m) channeling through Teixeira Brazilian company to him. Teixeira had close links with Sanud after an inquiry of the Brazilian senate in 2001.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter was asked by journalist Andrew Jennings why Fifa had not punished the officials, instead reverting to a court case in 2008 where the former ISL officials were largely exonerated.
Jack Warner, the head of Central America (CONCACAF) football, was alleged to have profited greatly from selling 2010 World Cup tickets to black market touts stacked up to $84,000. Panorama received evidence from Norwegian journalists showing invoices and e-mails that state that Warner was involved in the transactions.
An e-mail trail showed that tickets were destined to go on the black market, including 38 World Cup final tickets in Johannesburg. But it was rejected by touts as they were unwilling to meet with the asking price. Warner had also been alleged in selling tickets to touts in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Frankly, the programme has come at an unwelcoming time for England. The episode provided an insight into Fifa's murky dealings, but England's bid officials have said that these alleged transactions were dated and had little to say whether these bribes are being completed today. former MP and sports minister David Mellor says it may be more morally acceptable for England to "insist in reforming Fifa, and making Fifa transparent instead of kowtowing to Fifa in order to get the World Cup finals".
Whether this will subsequently damage England's World Cup bid will be seen on Thursday. The bid details the infrastructure in place (stadiums, transport etc.), the passion and fanbase of English football, and how financially lucrative a prestigious tournament can stimulate the English economy, although full details of how much it can gain from hosting remain to be seen. David Beckham, Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince William have arrived in Zurich to meet Fifa officials to reverberate their England World Cup message.
England will compete against favourites Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands. All the contenders will go through an elimination process hoping to achieve a majority from the 22 Fifa members voting. The candidate will have to reach at least 12 votes to be awarded the rights to host the World Cup, otherwise it will go round after round until the third stage of the vote after the contenders are eliminated one-by-one.
The votes are cast by officials in Europe (9), South America (3), CONCACAF (3), Africa (3), and Asia (4). England are in a game of Russian Roulette, but looks like they may have shot themselves in the foot.
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