It looks as though the Sunday Times investigation into FIFA voting for World Cup hosting may have scuppered the England bid for the 2018 World Cup.
The bid has reportedly been “significantly harmed” according to a key member of the English campaign team, which goes against a FIFA executive committee member saying there would be no backlash against the bid.
The vote takes place on 2 December, with FIFA officials unhappy about the Sunday Times probe into voting practices.
A member of the bid team told the BBC: “The question is: can we recover from this? FIFA members feel they are being persecuted by the British media. It isn't dead and the next two or three weeks will be delicate but England's bid has been damaged and it's going to take a lot of hard work to repair that damage."
Two FIFA executive committee members (from Nigeria and Tahiti) were exposed in a Sunday Times trap and the ethics committee of FIFA is meeting on 15-17 November to decide on any further action.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said last week: “One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply rooted problem [with the English media]. Who is benefiting from this situation and who is being harmed? We are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that."
It looks like an own goal by the Sunday Times to me.
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