World Cup 2018 – 12 days to decision

The fallout from the Sunday Times story and the resulting FIFA action in banning a number of Committee members just won’t go away. Sepp Blatter has felt the need to say that he believes the England 2018 World Cup Bid will not be damaged in the wake of the expose by the Sunday Times. However, it seemed a less than reassuring statement. Blatter said that he didn’t believe the Executive Committee would be influenced by the revelations.

This didn’t appear to entirely ring true though as Blatter expressed his unhappiness with the entrapment method used, declaring it unfair, despite the fact that it gave FIFA an opportunity to root out corruption. The most worrying fact for the England 2018 Bid is that FIFA President Blatter acknowledged that the bans had not gone down well with everyone within the organisation in stating that the decisions “…may not have found total support of all the members of the executive committee, it would be exaggerated to pretend that…”

England’s Bid totally unaffected? Mr Blatter it doesn’t sound quite that way to me….