FA urged to ditch FIFA privileges

THE Football Association should offer to abandon their historic FIFA privileges in return for reform of the world governing body, according to the MP who blew the lid off the latest World Cup bribery scandal.

Damian Collins, who used Parliamentary privilege on Tuesday to state allegations that two FIFA executive members — Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou and Ivory Coast’s Jacques Anouma — had been paid 1.5million US dollars to vote for Qatar 2022, said giving up the privileges would be a price worth paying.

The FA, along with the associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, have their own FIFA vice-president. They also are the only individual national associations represented on the game’s law-making body, the International FA Board, where they each have a vote along with FIFA who have four votes.

The special privileges have long caused some resentment among some figures in world football and Collins said the FA could take the lead on reform by offering to give them up.

Collins said: “The FA should be at the vanguard of pushing for the reform of FIFA. We should leading the call for change and should be prepared to ruffle a few feathers.

“We should be prepared to give concessions in order to achieve reform and be prepared to consider giving up the historic privileges.”

Collins said the reforms should include the World Cup bidding process, that there should be strict rules governing contact between bidding nations and FIFA ExCo members, and that FIFA should consider re-staging the 2022 vote if the allegations against Qatar are proved.

Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari president of the Asian football confederation who did much to secure the 2022 World Cup for his country, has denied any bribes were paid.

Bin Hammam said: “I can assure you nothing like this has happened from our side. If someone wants to damage reputations like this then they have to provide the proof. You can’t just accuse people just like that. It didn’t happen.”

Former FA and England 2018 chairman Lord Triesman has also claimed that four other FIFA members asked for favours or money in return for World Cup votes.

Hayatou has denied receiving bribes — the allegations were contained in a submission to Parliament by the Sunday Times.

A statement by the Confederation of African Football — Hayatou is their president — stated: “This kind of reporting to create and propagate false information to destroy his reputation, leadership and integrity will not succeed.

“The President of CAF said all these accusations brought against him are pure invention and an attempt to discredit him.”

Meanwhile Sepp Blatter’s bid to be re-elected as FIFA president has been given a further boost after the Oceania confederation confirmed their support for him.

Blatter is being challenged by Bin Hammam at a June 1 election which will be held at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. Bin Hammam believes the organisation’s reputation has been “sullied beyond compare” under the reign of Blatter. “It has become clear yet again in recent days that something urgently needs to be done to improve and enhance the image of FIFA,” Bin Hammam wrote on his personal blog.