Lord Triesman

Insideworldfootball.biz

FIFA will come in for unprecedented criticism from a House of Commons Select Committee over its handling of the corruption allegations surrounding World Cup bids next week.

This is believed to be at the centre of a special report on the England 2018 World Cup bid which will be made public next Tuesday (July 5), after being finalised by MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee last Tuesday (June 21).

It is understood that what provoked the Parliamentary wrath is the way Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, brushed aside the explosive evidence given to MPs by Lord Triesman, former chairman of the Football Association, about favours asked by FIFA executive members in return for supporting England’s bid.

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Insideworldfootball.biz

Is there anybody at FIFA minding the shop? Sepp Blatter, the President, clearly does not give the impression he is.

He may strut about as if he is the head of a unique Vatican-style sporting state, no territory or army, but through football, as the Vatican does through religion, reaching out to places no politician can. But the FIFA corruption crisis has exposed the fact that while Blatter is a master tactician who can turn almost every short term situation to his advantage, he is not a strategist.

Blatter desperately needs to have a strategy to cope with the FIFA corruption crisis, the worst in the organisation’s history. But not only is there no evidence Blatter has a strategy, he does not even seem to appreciate the need to develop one. At every step he has given the impression of reacting to events, rather than being in charge.

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Sunday Times

With the vote looming large too many twists and turns have harmed England’s campaign

England’s 2018 problem is not the British press but the policy twists and turns that have seen the World Cup bid reinvent itself three times since it was launched. This has left the 2018 team on the back foot, a position that, even insiders concede, makes a win difficult.

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Evening Standard

England’s hopes of bringing the World Cup to this country in 2018, for the first time since 1966, have suffered a severe setback following the Lord Triesman affair.

The chairman of the Football Association was quickly forced out following his allegations that Russia and Spain, England’s principal European 2018 rivals, were trying to bribe World Cup referees. Since then the bid team has worked hard to present the picture of a campaign back on track.

However, talking to FIFA insiders in Johannesburg, the picture emerging is of England on the back foot.

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The Sunday Telegraph

At around 4.40pm last Sunday afternoon, just as the players of Oxford United and York City, were getting ready for their big day at Wembley in the Conference Promotion play-off, there was a very different drama involving three much older men taking place in an office overlooking the pitch.

The three were Lord Triesman, the chairman of the FA, and two vice chairmen representing the coalition of the amateur and professional games that is the FA: Barry Bright, from the national game, and Sir David Richards, the Premier League chairman.

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