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Votes for World Cup venue on sale
World football's governing body FIFA on Sunday said it would investigate a newspaper report that two members of its executive committee had offered to sell their votes in the contest to bid for the host of the 2018 World Cup.
World football's governing body FIFA on Sunday said it would investigate a newspaper report that two members of its executive committee had offered to sell their votes in the contest to bid for the host of the 2018 World Cup.
Britain's Sunday Times said the offers were made to its reporters, posing as lobbyists for a consortium of US firms. It said Nigeria's Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti were filmed asking for money in exchange for their votes.
Adamu and Temarii, who couldn't be reached, are on the panel that will vote on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Zurich on December 2.
Adamu reportedly demanded $800,000 to build artificial football pitches in Nigeria in exchange for a "guaranteed" vote for the US for the 2018 event while Temarii wanted $2.3 million for a football academy in New Zealand.
"FIFA has asked for information and documents related to this matter. FIFA will analyse the material and only then be able to decide on any next steps," FIFA said in a statement.
The 2018 race has England and Russia in the running, along with joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands. The candidates for 2022 are the US, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Australia.
