| On 5 July 2011, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee published its Sixth Report of Session 2010-12, 2018 World Cup Bid.[1]
The Committee has now received responses from the Government, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Football Association (FA). These replies are published below as Appendices 1, 2 and 3.
In our Report, we recommended the full, urgent and independent investigation of allegations made to us of serious misconduct during the bidding process for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. We note that in its response FIFA confirms receipt of an email from a person claiming to have made allegations related to Qatar's bid to host the 2022 World Cup and now retracting these allegations. We welcome the fact that the allegations made by the so-called whistleblower in the Sunday Times have been withdrawn. However, we remain concerned that no apparent effort was made by FIFA to investigate these allegations when they were put to them and that others—specifically those made by Lord Triesman—remain.
Since we published our Report, FIFA has conducted an inquiry into accusations that FIFA Executive Committee members Mohamed bin Hamman and Jack Warner colluded to offer bribes to Caribbean football officials when the former was standing as a candidate for the FIFA presidency. As a consequence, FIFA has imposed a life-time ban on Mohamed bin Hamman engaging in football-related activity, and has imposed bans of shorter duration on a number of Caribbean Football Union Officials.
Our concern is that the governance failings revealed by this incident are symptomatic of a wider governance failure within FIFA, and we stand by our recommendation that FIFA commission a full, independent investigation of the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and for the outcome to be made public.
As we noted in our Report, in June 2011, FIFA's Congress approved the creation of a corporate governance and compliance committee. In October 2011, FIFA's Congress agreed that this committee would be established at the next meeting of its Executive Committee, in December 2011, to oversee reforms proposed by three new task forces. FIFA President Sepp Blatter also announced a good governance road map for reforms to be completed by the 2013 FIFA Congress. Our Report urged FIFA to address systemic reform, and we welcome these announcements as an encouraging indication that FIFA appears now to have recognised the need to initiate this. We urge FIFA to proceed in a timely and transparent manner that delivers substantive outcomes. We also strongly welcome the declared intention of the FA to seek international allies and to press the case for urgent reform.
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