19 Oct 2010

FIFA probes World Cup vote-selling claims

5:46 am on 19 October 2010

FIFA's president Sepp Blatter has appealed to his executive committee members to stay silent pending an investigation into alleged vote-selling ahead of the decisions on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals hosts.

A report in the London Sunday Times newspaper claims Nigeria's executive committee member Amos Adamu has been filmed in a meeting with undercover journalists, posing as lobbyists for a United States business consortium, asking for a million dollars to endorse the US bid, and that the Oceania Football Confederation president Reynald Temarii from Tahiti wanted $3 million for a sports academy.

FIFA is due to announce the 2018 and 2022 host countries on December 2 in Zurich, and a US member of FIFA's executive committee says the decisions are unlikely to be delayed.