World Cup - MPs blast England 2018 bid
A parliamentary report has blasted England's bid for the 2018 World Cup and lashed out at FIFA over the corruption allegations that have engulfed it for months.
The report, produced by a cross-party group of MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee, accused the FA of failing to have learnt anything from previous failed bids as England lost out on the right to host the tournament.
The bid, spearheaded by Prince William, David Cameron and David Beckham, ended in humiliating fashion as England secured only two votes at the first stage, including one from itself.
"England's bid team appears to have lacked a number of the components of a successful bid," the report said.
"Lessons did not appear to have been learned from previous studies with regard to the composition and unity of the bid team, and the messages it needed to project.
"More fundamentally, it appears that the groundwork for a successful bid had not been laid effectively with football's international bodies."
The committee was also "appalled" by allegations about the conduct of members of the FIFA executive committee during the 2018 World Cup bid process, and scathing of the failure to address the issues immediately.
"Instead, FIFA has given every impression of wishing to sweep all allegations of misconduct under the carpet and of dismissing anyone bringing allegations to them with an approach bordering on contempt," the report said before hitting out at the "extraordinary" decision not to pursue Jack Warner over corruption allegations following his resignation from the FIFA executive committee.
The committee added that the allegations merited a "full, urgent and independent investigation", and urged FIFA to conduct a thorough review of the governance of its bid processes, modelled on the steps the International Olympic Committee took after allegations of bribery and corruption in Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
John Whittingdale MP, chair of the committee said: "The committee's decision to hold a special hearing on FIFA and England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup has been amply justified by the revelations that followed from it.
"These have shown beyond doubt that FIFA's governance and its process for awarding competitions is in need of fundamental reform. Yet the re-election of Sepp Blatter and the decision to drop the FIFA ethics committee investigation following Jack Warner's resignation suggest nothing has changed.
"The credibility of FIFA has been hugely damaged and it is now up to Mr Blatter to deliver on his promises made at the time of his re-election and to show that allegations of misconduct and corruption will no longer be swept under the carpet."
He added: "We urge the FA to continue to press for real change in FIFA and to work with other national associations to ensure that it happens.
"We also call on FIFA to prove its commitment to increased openness and transparency by publishing its ethics committee report."
Comment 67 - 86 of 86
In hindsight the whole matter with regard to FIFA at any level borders on ludicrous. Corruption has been going on for decades, not years. The last honest president of FIFA was Sir Stanley Rous. Unfortunately Mr. Rous was not ruthless enough to bring FIFA up to date with regard to modern business practices. Havelange and Blatter have been like successive dictators with one aim!!!! To make money for themselves. With people like Jack Warner and co. to aid and abet the corruption it would take an historic event such as what has come about to reveal exactly how much the corruption had spread.
Even now Blatter is scheming and plotting his next moves for survival. Bin Hammam proved to what lengths country,s are prepared to go to achieve the organising of the World Cup. The fans have been forgotten in all of this business. When the UK parliament wastes time on debating such matters it just shows how critical the FIFA business has become. In the UK there is the best leagues, the best players, the best stadia and most of all the best fans who have stayed loyal to a great sport. We deserve better.
its just a game of bloody football, england just get over yourself , all you can remermber is that you won it once back in 66 and wont let the world forget that, now you are all bitter and twisted that FIFA told you all to F%&* off. what a waste of tax payers money this was
The FA is inept. FIFA is corrupt. The english players place a far higher loyalty to their club than their country. The Premier League is controlled by Murdoch and Sky TV. The system for bringing through players from youth to lower Leagues then Premiership is a shambles. YET every time we enter a major competition and sometimes qualify, the so called experts convince themselves that we only need to turn up to claim the trophy. The whoe thing is so flawed as to be laughable, its just that its not at all funny. Worse still ,nothing will change while those in control of our national game remain deluded.I am personally devoid of all hope for the forseeable.
Dont need it dont want it, anyone who supports this $hit is the scum of the earth.
We didnt need to bid, all we needed to say was, brazil is not the home to football, but they get rewarded to host many times, bring football home so we cam produce a world cup that others would want to follow and remember for their lives. Football is at its best when brought to its original place of establishment. deny England its heritage and you deny football a future.
@ bthenana
If you're hoping to watch future World cup football on TV in the UK, don't hold your breath ... I know FIFA own the rights.
But if Cameron And his culture minister, Jeremy Hunt, give Murdoch, and his like, any more control over the media, then there more than likely, won't be any minority channels for Blatter to sell the rights to.
Needed. A sucessful Guy Fawkes!
I have to agree a lot of the comments on 'our' government/MP's.
As just one of the many Committee Chairman in the House of Commons, John Whittingdale gets a further £14,000 on top of his already substantial MP salary. To look at Mr Whittingdale you could be forgiven for thinking that the mention of sport might induce a heart attack, as he bears a slight resemblance to 'Mr Creosote' in the 'meaning of life'.
The headline to this thread reads, "MPs blast England 2018 bid" but true to form the body of the article on the committees report includes no real substance but still manages to raise a debate. This is a classic case of 'smoke and mirrors'. Telling us..
"England's bid team APPEARS to have lacked a number of the components of a successful bid,"
"Lessons did not APPEAR to have been learned from previous studies with regard to the composition and unity of the bid team, and the messages it needed to project".
"More fundamentally, it APPEARS that the groundwork for a successful bid had not been laid effectively with football's international bodies."
All I see is a lot of 'appears' and absolutely no 'Action'. So what we have is a Parliament of greedy freeloaders that are paid, then paid again, to sit on committees that report £uck all.
Pot and kettle springs to mind.
FIFA announced that England's bid for the world cup was the best technical bid. How can this MPs report criticise the England bid in this light? It seems FIFA had an aim to give the World Cup to new hosts, (in a background of a lot of personal corruption ). If this were the case, FIFA should have made this clear before the bidding process started.
It seems England's bid was well put together and FIFA let them down.
At least we can see the world cup on TV, unless the bidding rights go to a minority channel with a large football budget. Hopefully, they won't, but in our current atmosphere of " the biggest bid is always accepted", we can't be sure. Sadly, money talks very loudly.
We play generallyt fairly in such matters. Are we idiots or right?
I must admit that if corruption is necessary to secure such rights, then maybe I don't want to watch the wretched competition, as it will just not be worth it!
Are we to believe that if England won the WC bid, FIFA and her credibility would not have been questioned. The FA and England have successfully mage herself an anathema to the world and FIFA hierachy. The MPs have wasted public money with this excercise because this country dont run FIFA and the world and England was not the only one to have lost out in the bidding process. When London beat France unexpectedly to win the 2012 Olympic, France did not conduct a witch hunt . No one has died so deal with it you sour losers. England does not have the power to reprimand FIFA and British Empire fell long ago.
Just how much public money did this pointless 'post mortem' cost?
this made me Laugh the Goverment comes up against an organisation more corrupt than them HAHA then cry about it now they know how every voter in the UK feels we did our best and got you lot.
the goverment,?going on about thieving and corruption and snooping and lies
and have the cheek to call fifa,.
Maybe if we didn't make our bid and speeches from inside Americas @#$% the rest of the world might not hate us so much. Just a thought.
"a cross-party group of MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee, accused the FA of failing to have learnt anything from previous failed bids"
In other words, MPs are furious that the idiots at the FA aren't as accustomed to unscrupulous payments as they are and failed to factor that into their bid. Well well, what reading between the lines can give you eh? What a laugh!
The FA is a fairly silly organisation, and much of it's decision making on many issues is suspect, but at the same time, and on several occasions, MPs as a group have proven they can't run a bath. Yet here they are, berating the FA, essentially for not being 'aware' that corruption is part and parcel of the process!
Time that Parliament was paid no attention to at all - it's merely a clown show. Yet somehow we're the idiots who get to put their exploding car back together, ready for the next act. Pathetic, on all sides.
These spammers are so stupid. They think they can write 'thank you for a common sense story' at the start of evey post and that people wont think they're spammers.
oliawola? england did point out 6 mths before!!! u might not have seen it or remembered it, but i do, about spain an russia controlling votes for each other, AHEM who,s got 2018 again??? who?? who is it??? now shoosh nut nut..
What are MPs doing getting involved in this subject - it should be none of their business.
clearly none of this woulda come up if England had won, it dont matter who got ready stadiums coz if that was the case the likes of korea/japan or SA wouldnt have hosted it, footy's bout uniting nation n it aint been hosted in eastern europe or the middle east, i think that justifies russia and qatar, bad loosers sayin ppl promised votes, i think expecting votes is a corrupt act itself, wa did u give to expect their votes huh??
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