FOLLOWING allegations of bribery against two of its executive members, the world football governing body, FIFA, may have suspended indefinitely, the final vote on the 2018/2022 World Cup bids.

An investigation was launched, weekend, into allegations that two FIFA officials, Nigeria’s Dr. Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarri of Oceania Football Confederation, offered to sell their votes to one of England’s rivals in the race to host the 2018 World Cup.

FIFA is understood to be considering postponing the decision on who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.


Amos Adamu
London-based The Sunday Times claims to have caught Nigerian Amos Adamu, a FIFA and CAF executive committee member, on film, telling an undercover reporter he would guarantee his vote in exchange for 500,000 pounds.

The newspaper’s reporters said they were working for a group of private American companies which wanted to help win the World Cup for the US.

The US pulled out of the race, weekend, saying it wanted to focus on bidding for the 2022 tournament.
England is one of four countries left in the race to host the 2018 tournament.

The reporters involved in the story emphasised they had no links to the bid and that the US committee’s campaign had been completely above board.

During a meeting in London with Adamu, who is also President of the West African Football Union, WAFU, he was alleged to have told the reporters that he wanted money to build four artificial football pitches in his home country.

The newspaper said a second member of the committee, Reynald Temarii, who is President of the Oceania Football Confederation, asked to be paid for his vote as well.

In his case, they said he wanted the money to finance a sports academy.
FIFA has asked for all materials relating to the allegations.

A spokesman said: “FIFA and the FIFA Ethics Committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and will continue to do so.

“FIFA has already requested to receive all of the information and documents related to this matter, and is awaiting to receive this material. In any case, FIFA will immediately analyse the material available and only once this analysis has been concluded will FIFA be able to decide on any potential next steps.

“In the meantime, FIFA is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter.”
The other contenders to host the 2018 World Cup are Russia and joint bids from Belgium-Holland and Spain-Portugal. The Oceania Football Confederation also announced, yesterday, that they were investigating the reports.

A statement said: “OFC is aware of the story that appeared in The Sunday Times in England today. As such, OFC is currently looking into the matter.”