Senior FIFA official Danny Jordaan admitted earlier this week that ten years ago his South Africa group (which successfully won the 2010 bid) were involved in a bit of collusion as well before the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Jordaan’s revelation comes just a month before the FIFA panel will vote on both 2018 and 2022 World Cup destinations and just weeks following the shocking discovery that two current FIFA officials were willing to sell their secret ballot votes for cash.
Jordaan said that in 2000 when South Africa was in the mix for the 2006 World Cup they convinced Brazil to remove themselves from the race, but were unsuccessful in convincing England to do the same. Germany ended up being the awarded nation for the event, but the confession by Jordaan makes you wonder how often these nations secretly wheel and deal with each other to be considered for the honor.
Several FIFA officials have recently admitted that collusion will likely always present itself insuch affairs considering their is so much at stake and so many nations that desire the great honor of hosting the World Cup. Add in the fact that this December vote will cover two different Cups and you have potentially twice as many nations involved in these types of private affairs and opportunities for collusion.
FIFA executive committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Asian confederation president, said last week that “collusion will always have a chance to happen” regarding the upcoming vote due to the fact that two World Cup votes are at stake. The FIFA official did admit on his own private website that “we all pray that no corrupted collusion will find its way to the bids”, but with all of FIFA’s problems in the last six months, I’d say that something is rotten in Denmark.
Sorry Denmark.
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