FIFA Discusses Postponing World Cup Vote Amidst Bidding Scandal

(ATR) With the World Cup bid bribery scandal dominating the agenda at today's FIFA Executive Committee meeting, one point of discussion will be whether to postpone the vote for the 2022 World Cup host.

Amid allegations of collusion over vote-swapping involving Qatar 2022 and Spain-Portugal, which is bidding for 2018, the committee will look hard at a plan to separate the votes for the two tournaments by delaying the 2022 decision for at least a month. The aim would be to reduce the impact of vote trading.

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, a former FIFA Executive Committee member, said yesterday that the Dec. 2 vote should be delayed to allow for a full investigation into suspended Ex-co members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, who are alleged to have offered their votes for cash.

"The awarding (of the World Cups) should be postponed until the question is cleared up, in a negative or a positive way," he was quoted in a Reuters report. "Four weeks would not make a big difference."

"The executive committee is not a pile of corrupt people. It is just that some people took a wrong turn," said the former German FA chief.

But with just five weeks until the vote such a radical plan seems unlikely to gain traction, especially given the framework of the bidding contest originally set out by FIFA and the fact that some of the bid committees budgets are running dry.

The voting procedure for the Dec. 2 secret ballot was expected to be rubberstamped at the two-day meeting of FIFA's ruling executive. But this decision is now complicated by the fact that only 22 of the 24 members are currently eligible to vote with Adamu and Temarii suspended.

England's unseemly spat with Russia over what were interpreted as critical remarks about England made by Alexey Sorokin last week in a Russian newspaper will also be discussed by Sepp Blatter and his colleagues as they attempt to restore the integrity of the bid process and limit the damage to FIFA's credibility.

Mark Palios, the former chief executive of the Football Association, told the BBC World Service this morning that FIFA "would do well to look at the example of the IOC" following the Salt Lake City bribery scandal. Ten IOC members were sacked for accepting gifts of cash and other inducements.

"What you need in an organisation like this is complete transparency... perception of the reality is the important thing," he said.

Written by Mark Bisson