FA reject FIFA World Cup report criticism

The Football Association (FA) has strongly rejected criticism from a FIFA report over their failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

The findings from the FIFA Ethics Committee’s investigation into the bidding process for the next two World Cups were published on Thursday and England’s campaign to stage the 2018 showpiece, which was awarded to Russia, is in the spotlight again for the FA’s attempts to woo former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

Warner resigned from his role in 2011 amid bribery allegations and FIFA’s report stated: “England’s response to Mr Warner’s – improper – demands, in at a minimum always seeking to satisfy them in some way, damaged the integrity of the ongoing bidding process.”

However, the FA has responded by insisting they oversaw a “transparent bid”.

“We note the FIFA ethics committee has published a 42-page report in relation to the bidding processes for the FIFA World Cups in 2018 and 2022,” an FA spokesman said in a statement.

“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 cooperation 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’.”