JACK WARNER yesterday broke his silence on the contested 2018 World Cup vote when he said voting for England would have been “the ultimate insult” to Fifa in the wake of British media allegations of corruption.
England 2018 insiders claim Warner, pivotal to their chances of success and wooed by David Beckham and successive prime ministers, promised the three votes under his control to England before voting for Russia. But the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) president said the revelations in the Sunday Timesand Panoramawere the reason England polled only two of the 22 votes available and were knocked out in the first round.
Three days before the vote, Panoramaaccused three Fifa executive committee members of bribery and alleged Warner tried to supply ticket touts at the 2010 World Cup. He had previously been admonished by Fifa's ethics committee over ticket deals for the 2006 tournament and has faced a host of other allegations of impropriety.
The programme followed the Sunday Timesinvestigation which saw six Fifa senior officials banned for offences including corruption.
“Suffice it to say the Fifa ExCo (Executive Committee) as a body could not have voted for England having been insulted by their media in the worst possible way at the same time. To do so would have been the ultimate insult [to Fifa],” said Warner.
It is understood the Fifa president Sepp Blatter raised the issue of the “evil” media coverage of Fifa just hours before the vote and England’s rivals, including the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and influential Spanish ex-co member Angel Maria Villar Llona, played heavily on it.
Bid leaders do not believe the media coverage was the reason for England securing only two of the members’ votes last week, but a number of members have insisted that was the case, including Cyprus’ Marios Lefkaritis, Japan’s Junji Ogura and now Warner.
Meanwhile, the head of Australia’s failed 2022 bid Frank Lowy yesterday said “playing straight” may have cost them the World Cup and that Fifa members lied outright to them about their voting intentions.
Guardian Service
