FIFA’s executive committee members reveal discontent on English media’s practices
Following the astonishing defeat of the England 2018 bid in Zurich, Marios Lefkaritis, FIFA’s executive committee member from Cyprus has revealed that English media’s focus on the corruption circles inside the executive committee had an adverse impact on
England’s chances of hosting the 2018 World Cup.
Eventually in the voting it was decided that Russia will be given the rights to host the 2018 World Cup.
England’s bid suffered a huge blow as they only managed to capture 2 votes out of the 22 available in the first round of voting. In the second round, Russia dominated other rival bids from Iberian partners Portugal and Spain and Netherlands/Belgium to secure
13 votes.
Sepp Blatter later announced the executive committee’s decision to allot the 2018 hosting rights to Russia’s bid. The 2022 World Cup was awarded to Qatar after the Middle East nation captured the maximum number of votes in the third round of voting as they
outfought contenders U.S.A.
Lefkaritis spoke to the media about BBC Panorama and Sunday Times’ reports on England’s 2018 bid, he said, "In the beginning I thought not, but after the experience I got from other members yesterday, then I have to say definitely yes. If they [the bid]
think they did not, then they are stupid and naive".
England’s 2018 bid chief executive revealed after the defeat in the first voting round that FIFA’s executive committee members had turned on their promises as around six of them had promised to vote for England during the voting process.
David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham had lobbied hard before the voting process to secure precious last minute votes for England’s bid but their efforts clearly fell short in the end.
Andy Anson, England bid’s chief executive said, "They are saying to us that our media killed us but I don't believe that for one minute, but that's what we are being told. My only issue with the Sunday Times and more the BBC Panorama was the timing of it
- it was almost impossible to bounce back. I'm not going to beat around the bush: individual members promised to vote for us and didn't, clearly”.
He added, "That's difficult to stomach when they have given you assurances. We thought on the upside we would get seven or eight but not that five or six would leave us, that's quite a big percentage of the ones we had been promised".
One of the members, who had given his word, was FIFA’s vice president, Jack Warner, who hails from Trinidad. Jack and other members from North America, namely from U.S.A and Guatemala voted as a bloc as Anson revealed. He said, "I think they probably did
vote as a bloc, but not for us sadly".
Turkish executive committee member also committed his vote to England but in the end after the voting process had concluded and the results had been announced, he told the media, “It was nothing personal, just business”. The defeat to Russia has not been
taken well in England, who have not hosted the World Cup since 1966.
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