Ex-FIFA Official Zen-Ruffinen Says Deals Likely as World Cup Bids Probed
Countries bidding to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 will cut deals to win rights to sport’s most-watched event even though that breaks the rules, a former general secretary of soccer’s governing body said.
For the first time, FIFA will on Dec. 2 announce hosts for two consecutive World Cups at the same time. The ruling body yesterday said it was investigating a report that two members of its executive committee offered to exchange their votes for favors from potential hosts.
Former FIFA secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen says the award of the two events at the same time will increase the negotiating and trading between officials and bidders. Zen- Ruffinen, who was dismissed by FIFA in 2002 after opposing the re-election of President Sepp Blatter, said there would be dealmaking in the coming weeks.
“There is no doubt that’s the case,” Zen-Ruffinen said in an interview earlier this month.
Blatter said he had opened an “in depth” investigation into the Sunday Times allegations in a letter to the 24-member FIFA executive committee that decides where the World Cup is played. Nicolas Maingot, FIFA’s head of communications, declined to comment.
Reporters from the London newspaper, posing as lobbyists for the U.S. bid, said officials from the West African Football Union and the Oceania Football Confederation indicated they would sell their votes. Under guidelines governing the election of World Cup hosts such deals are prohibited.
Tai Nicholas, chief executive officer of the Oceania Football Confederation, declined to comment. The Confederation of African Football wasn’t able to immediately comment. The U.S. bid committee said yesterday it had no involvement with any aspect of the Sunday Times story.
Anonymous Voting
The balloting for the 2018 and 2022 sites will take place behind closed doors in a conference room in Zurich. The executive members vote anonymously.
“There’s a big pressure to be more transparent but it’s not really in the interest of some of the people involved, who actually for a lot of reasons try to please everybody,” Zen- Ruffinen said.
FIFA said it wouldn’t provide further comments on the World Cup voting process.
Michel D’Hooghe, one of the 24 men who will decide the World Cup venues, said he’s backing his own country’s bid but would vote for the next best candidate should Belgium and the Netherlands’ joint offer be eliminated. He couldn’t say how other FIFA officials would make up their minds.
Best Marketing
“I will seriously examine every candidate and try to find the best solution for the future of the football world,” D’Hooghe said in an interview Oct. 7. “I can only look in my own heart and I cannot look into the heart of my 23 colleagues.”
Mohamed Bin Hammam, the head of soccer in Asia, on the same day said the bids with the best marketing, not necessarily the best candidates, would be triumphant.
The U.S. said Oct. 15 it was withdrawing from the bidding for the 2018 event to concentrate on its proposal for 2022. That left England, Russia and joint bids from Spain and Portugal as well as Belgium and the Netherlands still in contention for 2018. Japan, South Korea, Australia and Qatar are remaining bidders for 2022.
The bidding is the most competitive since Germany beat South Africa, which hosted this year’s event, to stage the World Cup in 2006. Zen-Ruffinen said there are likely to be last- minute negotiations as there were when Germany was selected in 2001.
“Before each vote, there is a so-called ‘Night of the Long Knives,’ during which there are a lot of promises and discussions in the corridors,” he said. “The impact of such a decision is so big that there’s a lot of pressure.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at tpanja@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net
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