Fifa World Cup Vote In Just Two Days
Tuesday, 30th November 2010 at 09:13am
The vote to decide the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups is set to be made in Zurich in just two days time and bid teams from all nations concerned are now in last minute efforts to convince voters of their respective credentials.
The former looks set to come down to a three-way battle between England, Russia and a joint bid by Spain and Portugal, while the Qatar, the USA and Australia are considered to be the front runners for the 2022 finals.
The England 2018 bid suffered another blow last night when the BBC's documentary program Panorama followed up the Sunday Times' 'cash for votes' expose with more allegations of corruption within the corridors of power at Fifa.
The timing of the broadcast could not have come at a worse time for the England bid, seen by many to the favourite just a couple of months ago.
Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner was implicated in the documentary aired on Monday, November 29 where it was alleged he bought a large number of tickets for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa which then appeared on the black market; something he was accused of doing in 2006.
Warner is an influential player within Fifa and as the head of the Concacaf region it is believed that the three votes from that region will all back the same bid and could be enough to secure passage through the first round of voting.
As a result of the fallout from the Panorama program, British Prime Minister David Cameron will meet with Warner to convince him of the merits of backing an England bid.
0 comments so far (click here to post your new comments)
Leave your comment:
Note: Comments may not appear immediately. Email addresses are only needed for validation purposes. Please keep comments relevant. Any content deemed inappropriate or offensive will be edited and/or deleted.
No HTML code is allowed. You may use BBCode to format your text.