Refiling (eca 149): FIFA and Blatter facing imagecrisis (News Feature)

By Wolfgang Mueller and Frank Heidmann Oct 21, 2010, 17:19 GMT

Zurich - Although world football's controlling body FIFA has acted swiftly to investigate allegations of votes for sale in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host bidding process, the organization and its President Joseph Blatter face a huge image problem.

The chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee, Claudio Sulser, announced on Wednesday night that they had suspended Executive Committee members Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii, as well as four former executive members.

The committee, which temporarily suspended all six for 30 days, will investigate the allegations further and meet again in mid November.

The organization is under considerable time pressure as the Executive Committee meeting, at which the hosts are to be decided and then announced takes place in Zurich on December 2.

England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands are bidding for the 2018 edition. Qatar, Australia, the United States, Japan and South Korea aim to land the 2022 World Cup.

The decision came after a sting operation by the British Sunday Times newspaper filmed Adamu and Temarii allegedly agreeing to support a certain bid in return for money to build sports facilities.

Adamu is said to have asked that the money be paid to him personally.

Sulser said in Zurich that the entire video footage had been made available to FIFA, adding that the suspensions were 'a sad day for football and FIFA.'

He revealed that the provisional suspensions bar the pair from all football-related duties until his committee has had the opportunity to investigate the allegations.

But even if FIFA has suspended the six and is investigating two bids after allegations of a vote deal having been made, belief in the World Cup host allocation process is at an all-time low.

Reports have suggested that Portugal and Spain, who are bidding to co-host the event and Qatar, have struck a deal whereby Qatar's backers would support the Spanish/Portugal bid for 2018, and vice- versa for 2022.

Sulser late Wednesday did not want to confirm that the two bids under investigation were Spain/Portugal and Qatar.

The allegations made in the Sunday Times were not the first time that the bid has been shaken by controversy.

In 2000 South Africa cried foul after Oceania delegate Charles Dempsey abstained in the final round of voting and Germany was given the nod for the 2006 finals by a single vote, winning 12-11.

Had Dempsey followed the instructions of the Oceania confederation, the count would have been 12-12 and Blatter, who favoured the South African bid, would have had a casting vote.

Having escaped a potentially difficult situation then, Blatter needs now to show strong leadership and steer the organization out of stormy waters.

He is up for re-election in June next year and that could well be the reason why he ensured that the Ethics Committee deal with the allegations virtually as soon as they arose.

'Our society is full of devils and such devils are also found in football,' he said Wednesday at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

But the image of the organization, which prides itself on Fair Play and has on a number of occasions been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - a fact which fills Blatter with pride - has taken a serious knock.

The Times, whose sister paper broke the story on Sunday, said that a 'dark cloud' is hanging over the 'Home of FIFA' while the Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger said that people no longer have confidence in FIFA 'once again.'

Another Swiss newspaper, the Neue Zurcher Zeitung wrote: 'FIFA and its president are once again under suspicion.'

Although Blatter has previously been linked to some of the controversies, IOC member Thomas Bach believes that the FIFA president's position has been strengthened by the latest scandal

'He has immediately instigated the correct steps,' Bach said.

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