World Football News: Spain/Portugal bid chairman accuses England of cutting out a deal with U.S.A. - Part 2
When asked about the British media and their modus operandi, Blatter remarked, “One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply-rooted problem [with the English media]. Who is benefiting
from this situation and who is being harmed, we are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that.” Blatter also rejected an option suggesting that the votes of the FIFA members should
be made public. The FIFA President added to his remarks by saying, “When it is a secret ballot it is something you cannot publish. When you go to vote in your village and you put your ballot in, be realistic.”
FIFA also already confirmed the voting procedure for the 2018 and the 2022 World Cup campaigns. Football’s governing body confirmed that, the 2022 bids will make their 30 minute presentations to FIFA’s executive committee on the
1st of December in an order which has already been decided. The order is 1. Australia, 2. South Korea, 3. Qatar, 4. U.S.A and 5. Japan.
The 2018 presentations from the prospective host nations will start on the morning of December the 2nd. England are set to feature third on the list after Belgium and Holland as well as Portugal and Spain. However the
last country to present in the 2018 bid war will be the Russian Federation. Both the 2018 and the 2022 bids will then be decided by secret ballots. Voting will be done by all the eligible FIFA executive committee members on 2nd of December at the
FIFA house. It will also be overseen by Swiss Canton of Zug and an observer from KPMG. If a country wishes to be the winner, it will need absolute majority i.e. 50 percent plus one of the voting members. However, if there is no majority at first then the bid
with the fewest votes will drop out. In event of a tie, Sepp Blatter will have the deciding vote. It all remains to be seen how things will unfold at FIFA’s headquarters in Switzerland on December 2nd, 2010.
When the results are eventually known they will be put in two envelopes which will be taken to Messe, Zurich, where Sepp Blatter will be responsible for announcing the final results. FIFA must carry out the procedure with transparency
and fairness as its credibility in world football as already taken a hit with all the corruption charges and the bribery scandals. 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was a marvelously carried out by the host nation but FIFA will be looking towards the 2014
tournament in Brazil for further improvement as well. If England get to host the 2018 World Cup, it will be the first time since 1966 that the English nation will host the tournament.
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