FIFA’s ethics committee will investigate claims by former English Football Association chairman David Triesman that Spain is trying to bribe referees at the World Cup.
Triesman quit on Sunday after being secretly tape-recorded by a tabloid newspaper suggesting Russia was going to help Spain bribe referees at the World Cup in return for gaining its rival’s support in the race to host the 2018 or 2022 tournament.
“FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke has requested the FIFA Ethics Committee to examine the alleged statements made by Lord Triesman in relation to the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups,” world soccer’s governing body said on Monday in a statement. “In addition, FIFA has sent a letter to the Football Association asking the FA to provide a report on this matter, including Lord Triesman’s position. FIFA will not make any further comment on this matter until it has been dealt with by the FIFA Ethics Committee.”
The investigation is a further setback to England’s faltering bid to host the World Cup for the first time since 1966.
The Mail on Sunday taped the 66-year-old Triesman two weeks ago talking with Melissa Jacobs, a former aide from his time as a government minister, but didn’t publish the damaging allegations until two days after he presented England’s official bid book to FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
The bid board had hoped that replacing Triesman on Sunday with Geoff Thompson — a vice president of FIFA and UEFA — would draw a line under the humiliating incident.
England’s bid team said it welcomed — and expected — FIFA announcing an inquiry into Triesman’s claims and said: “We will cooperate fully.”
“[It’s] important that we can demonstrate to FIFA and the rest of the world at this time that we are serious about our bid for the World Cup 2018,” said Alex Horne, the FA’s acting chief executive. “The gossip and the nonsense doesn’t matter.”
Board member Sebastian Coe, who is also chairman of the London 2012 Olympics and formerly head of FIFA’s ethics committee, spoke on Monday by telephone with Blatter.
The FA also sent an e-mail early on Sunday to top football officials in Russia to apologize although Russian bid chief Alexey Sorokin said on Monday the letter had not been received.
“England 2018 unreservedly apologizes for these comments, for any suggestions of any improper behavior on the part of any members of the Russian Football family, our fellow Bidders and for any express or implied criticism of the Russian Football Federation or of FIFA,” part of the e-mail from the English bid team read. “The comments reported to have been made by Lord Triesman in no way represent the views of England 2018, any employee, Director, Ambassador, Consultant or adviser to the Bid. England 2018 bitterly regrets any damage to the integrity of the Russian Football Family, FIFA or any of its Member Associations caused by these comments. We are available to discuss this matter at your convenience.”
England and Russia are bidding on their own to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, while there are joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands.
Australia and the US are also bidding for either tournament, while Japan, Qatar and South Korea are concentrating on 2022 as they believe a European nation is favored to win for 2018.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier