A payment of £35,000 by England’s 2018 World Cup bid to cover a gala dinner for Caribbean officials is being investigated by the Fifa ethics investigator Michael Garcia, it can be disclosed.
Garcia questioned England 2018 officials about picking up the bill for the Trinidad dinner during interviews in London last year as part of his investigation into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The dinner was part of efforts to woo the then influential Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, who has since quit football in disgrace.
Any action from Garcia’s report is likely to be announced within the next two months but sources close to England’s bid say their lawyers are comfortable they did not break any rules. The Football Association would not comment.
It can also be revealed that Garcia is looking into all friendly matches played by bidding nations with the countries of Fifa executive committee members before the 2010 vote.
England’s friendly against Trinidad in June 2008 is unlikely to be called into question as it took place before the bid was officially registered in 2009, even though the FA had announced some time before the match that it was bidding.
However, England 2018 did promise Thailand’s Fifa member an international match but pulled out of the friendly after its humiliating defeat in December 2010. Other bidding countries also staged friendlies against Fifa members’ countries – for example Japan played Guatemala.
Fifa’s bidding rules of conduct stated bidders should refrain from “any benefit, opportunity, promise, remuneration, or service” to any Fifa members, consultants or their families.
The £35,000 gala dinner was for 160 people from the Caribbean Football Union and took place in Port of Spain in February 2010.
It was revealed by Warner on the eve of the event, when he said: “It is costing the FA about £35,000, but I think that is money well spent as it allows them to speak to all 32 countries from the CFU.
“It also means I will be able to get the collective view of my membership about who they think should host the World Cup when the time comes for me to decide who I should vote for.
“And in light of the harsh economic conditions we are battling in the region the FA has agreed to formally partner with us to host the dinner. It is an offer which I have agreed to.”
At the time, England 2018 said the £35,000 payment would allow the CFU to spend the money they save on football projects instead.
David Dein, the former Arsenal and FA vice-chairman, addressed the gala dinner in his role as international president of the 2018 bid team.
The £35,000 is put into the shade by the £1m Qatar 2022 spent sponsoring the Confederation of African Football’s congress and Australia 2022’s £300,000 on a grant to Warner’s Concacaf centre of excellence in Trinidad.
Franz Beckenbauer has hit back at Fifa over his 90-day ban for failing to aid the continuing investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and insisted he would cooperate with the inquiry.
In a statement released via his manager, Marcus Höfl, Beckenbauer said he would answer Fifa’s statement within the next two weeks and therefore assumed the ban, which includes his attendance at World Cup games, would be lifted with immediate effect.
But Beckenbauer also criticised Fifa for failing to inform him of its decision before going to the press. The two-times World Cup winner – once as a player, the other as manager – had been “extremely surprised” by hearing of his ban via the news on Friday, even though Fifa’s ethics rules state that any party accused of deliberate breach would be given the chance to release an advance statement.
“It was the first time that Fifa did not know how to contact me by telephone,” said Beckenbauer. “Furthermore I always assumed that I did not have to answer the questions because I no longer hold an official function with Fifa. But that has now been cleared up.”
In the statement, Höfl said Beckenbauer had at no point ruled out answering the questions put to him by Fifa.
(theguardian)
