FIFA official: Impact of press investigations on England 2018 bid exaggerated
Danny Jordaan, head organiser of the 2010 World Cup, has said England's bid to host the 2018 tournament will not be damaged by the press scrutiny directed at FIFA from the country's media.
The English bid team has voiced its concern that the conduct of the country's press, which caused FIFA's ethics committee to ban two executive committee members after they were accused of vote-fixing in a
Sunday Times investigation, will have a negative effect on the bid.
In addition to the Sunday Times' investigation, investigative TV programme
BBC Panorama is set to air a documentary about FIFA on Monday 29 November.
But Jordaan, who has served on FIFA's marketing and television board since 1998, said the effects of the investigations on the bid have been exaggerated.
"I think it is being overstated, I don't think media will have an impact to such an extent to swing the decision one way or the other," the South African told
BBC Sport. "People understand — before and after the bidding process, the media will be there and we must not over-react to what the media has put out there."
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has previously said that the English bid will not be harmed despite condemning the methods used by the English reporters.
CONMEBOL to support Iberian 2018 bid
Meanwhile, the South American football federation, CONMEBOL, has announced that its three representatives will vote for Spain and Portugal's joint bid on 2 December.
"The 10 countries are agreed to give the vote to Spain," the body's general secretary Eduardo Deluca said at a press conference.
CONMEBOL, which has representatives from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina on the executive committee, will not decide which of the 2022 bids it will support prior to the day of the vote.
Qatar, the United States, South Korea, Australia and Japan are contending to host the 2022 tournament.
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