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FA hits back at FIFA over World Cup bid

England have been criticised for their 2018 World Cup bid breaking FIFA's rules ©

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The Football Association has hit back at a FIFA report that heavily criticises England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, saying it does "not accept any criticism regarding the integrity of England's bid or any of the individuals involved."

On Thursday morning, FIFA's ethics committee cleared Qatar of corruption in winning the right to stage the 2022 World Cup but censures England over its 2018 bid.

A 42-page report by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee, turned much of its fire on England's conduct, saying it had "damaged the integrity of the ongoing bidding process".

It said the England 2018 bid team's attempts to secure the FIFA executive votes apparently controlled by disgraced ex-vice-president Jack Warner included securing a job for a family friend in Britain and "violated bidding rules".

And it hit out at Lord Triesman, the England bid chairman, saying he did not co-operate with the Garcia investigation but had used his parliamentary privilege to make a number of allegations of corruption in the bidding process.

But in a statement issued from its Wembley headquarters, the FA said England had conducted "a transparent bid" to stage the 2018 tournament.

The statement said: "We were not given any prior notice of the report before publication. We do not accept any criticism regarding the integrity of England's bid or any of the individuals involved.

"We conducted a transparent bid and, as the report demonstrates with its reference to the England bid team's 'full and valuable cooperation,' willingly complied with the investigation.

"We maintain that transparency and co-operation around this entire process from all involved is crucial to its credibility.

"We also note that, after a lengthy investigatory process and assessment, the report has concluded that the 'potentially problematic facts and circumstances identified by the report regarding the England 2018 bid were, all in all, not suited to compromise the integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018/22 bidding process as a whole'."

Conservative MP Damian Collins - who has campaigned for FIFA reform and used his parliamentary privilege to allege that bribes had helped to win the 2022 tournament for Qatar - blasted the report as "a whitewash".

He told Press Association Sport there had been "an attempt to con people that there has been a full and independent investigation when there has not been".

He said: "The result is that allegations of bribery and serious wrongdoing remain unanswered and they are still suppressing the full report.

"This is FIFA investigating itself and, not surprisingly, returning a verdict of not guilty.The points being made about the England bid are just a smokescreen to try to hide these facts."

Britian's FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, meanwhile, said he hoped lessons could be learned and told PA Sport: "Personally, I am pleased that the report has been issued by Mr Eckert.

"The findings would appear to confirm that no further action should be taken on the decisions that had been made by FIFA in respect of the awarding of the World Cups for 2018 and 2022.

"The people charged with issuing this report, Michael Garcia and Hans-Joachim Eckert, are people of the highest professional integrity.

"Following their extensive investigations, I feel it is now very important that people should concentrate solely on the wonderful occasion that the World Cup provides to the many millions of people who enjoy our game."

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