MP calls for World Cup corruption investigation to be reconsidered

A British MP has urged the Serious Fraud Office to reconsider its decision not to investigate allegations of FIFA corruption during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Russia and Qatar won the bids to hosts the 2018 and 2022 tournaments respectively, despite the voting process since coming under intense scrutiny.

Qatar won the vote to host the 2022 World Cup © Getty Images

And Conservative MP Damian Collins has called for an investigation after media reports in the US that Chuck Blazer – a FIFA executive between 1996 and 2013 – recorded conversations with football officials at the London 2012 Olympics after being recruited by the FBI.

“If there is evidence that Chuck Blazer held meetings during the Olympics, that would come under the jurisdiction of the SFO,” Collins told BBC Sport. “I want to see if they would now be prepared to act.”

The SFO can investigate “cases which undermine UK commercial/financial PLC in general and the City of London in particular”.

FIFA declined to comment about the allegations concerning Blazer when contacted by the BBC.

World football’s governing body has been heavily criticised after its president Sepp Blatter announced that FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia’s report into alleged voting corruption will not be made public.

The report was handed over to FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, who is due to examine the findings.

FIFA has expressed regret last week after its video launching the logo for the 2018 World Cup showed the disputed Crimean peninsula as part of Russia.

Blatter, meanwhile, has admitted the Qatar World Cup cannot be played in the summer due to average temperatures rise to nearly 50 degrees Celsius during the World Cup’s traditional June-July slot, with calls for the tournament to be moved to May as European clubs are against a winter competition.

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