England have asked FIFA to incorporate their much advocated fair play stance in the upcoming December 2nd executive committee vote casting session to determine the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.
The England bid leaders have personally written letters to all executive committee members in a bid to try and fix the damage caused by the recent English media investigations into vote trading.
Geoff Thompson, England’s chairman for the 2018 bid distanced his country’s bid from the infamous Sunday Times and BBC Panorama investigations. Thompson who is also FIFA and UEFA Vice President requested the world governing football body to ingore the reportrs made by the two media publications saying that the bid had nocontrol over the British media.
“We hope England’s bid will not be judged negatively due to the activities of individual media organisations, regardless of one’s view of their conduct. We hope you appreciate that we have no control over the British media.”
“Rest assured we have done all we can to assist FIFA and its members during recent weeks. It was members of the England bid which alerted the FIFA general secretary, on September 29, to the activities of a bogus company which turned out to be the Sunday Times investigation. We kept him informed on regular occasions as we conducted our investigation into this company.”
England are considered favourites to host the 2018 tournament although Russia’s strong bid cannot be underestimated. FIFA will make the ultimate decision on December 2nd when its 24 man executive committee votes who will host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Thompson concludes the letter by asking FIFA to focus on the positive elements of their overall bid.
“Concern over what the future might hold for FIFA in its relationship with the British media if we were to be successful should also be dismissed. We are sure that FIFA would receive a positive reception and can use this unprecedented platform to generate increased awareness for its partners and stakeholders and the promotion of the game globally. We all want a FIFA World Cup vote to focus on the positive elements of the overall bidding process.”
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