Change Of Fifa's Tune Is Welcoming

Saturday, 20th November 2010 at 09:04am

Just a few weeks after it was feared that the revelations in the Sunday Times about two Fifa Executive Committee members had hit England's chances of hosting the 2018 Fifa World Cup, as an Englishman it was relieving to hear Sepp Blatter announce to the world that this wasn't the case.

Whether this proves to be correct or not we will never know. What is running through the minds of the 22 remaining committee members when they visit the polling booths on 2 December will never be revealed.

Will England's excellent stadia, transport links, facilities and huge passion for game come to the fore - as they well should - or will the scandals created by the UK press still be lingering in the minds of those with the power to decide.

It would be nice to take Blatter at face value but with enough skeletons in his closet to rival any major political figurehead, celebrity and more, it's hard to accept anything uttered by him with anything but scepticism.

Call me a cynic but his comments about John Terry's indiscretions, his comparison of Ronaldo being made to honour his Manchester United contract with the atrocities meted out during the slave trade and his opinions on women's football hardly inspire.

When the scandal broke, Blatter was quick to point the finger of blame not at Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii but at the Sunday Times journalists for having the temerity of exposing two of his cronies for being crooks.

The phrase 'those in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones' sprung instantly to mind when he appeared to question their integrity.

Instead of being grateful that members of his organisation had been caught on the take, Blatter immediately leaped upon the manner in which they had been uncovered.

He has a point. Entrapment is never going to be popular with many outside of a newsroom but once the allegations were made he should have condemned Adamu and Temarii; not a bit of it.

Perhaps he was upset that it had taken an external agent to uncover the foul stench of corruption happening under his own nose, or, perhaps, was he more concerned about other stories coming to light that would cast an even greater shadow.

So he went on the attack and he was backed by other high-ranking Fifa officials including Mohammed Bin Hamamm, head of the Asian Football Federation.

This lead to panic in the English ranks when, in reality, the England 2018 bid had not been involved in the expose one bit and should have been free from any fallout but, as it was, in the minds of Blatter et al, they were guilty by association.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

This lead to those behind the England bid to consider asking the editors of British newspapers and TV to write to Fifa expressing their support for the bid and the game's governing body.

So much for the freedom of the press.

Fortunately this never came about and yesterday's announcement by Fifa will have been well received by the England 2018 bid team, although it must be asked, why the change of heart?

On this we can only speculate but you would hope it was because they realised the England bid was in no way responsible for the actions of the Sunday Times.

But things are never black or white with Fifa and maybe, just maybe, there was something else lurking in the bowels of Sepp's Ivory Tower that they'd rather remain undisturbed.

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