The Sunday Times World Cup bid investigation poses a dilemma of morals and desires

Bidding for the World Cup is seemingly a delicate operation that involves false smiles, unquestioning agreement with FIFA officials and the avoidance of egg-shells laid by newshounds.

Painted smirks and polite agreement are quite up Trevor Brooking’s street, as his quiet ramblings and gentle chuckling fit snugly into the clique environment that the governing body surrounds itself in, however the dodging of those chicken stones is another matter entirely.

This divisive issue that England’s World Cup bidding team have no control over is a tricky topic that falls somewhere between freedom of the press and unpatriotic wounding of the bid, but on which side of the fence does the Sunday Times recent investigation fall?

Reporters in the expose posed as lobbyists for a consortium of private American companies who wanted to secure the World Cup for the United States and lured two executive committee members - Amos Adamu from Nigeria and Reynald Temarii from Tahiti into helping their bid in return for a sack of swag.

Whilst to many this may appear to be investigative journalism uncovering corruption at the heart of the footballs governing body on the scale of The Wire’s Clay Davis, FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists that it’s not his employees who are guilty of any wrong doing.

He blurted inbetween shovels of caviar and truffles on toast “One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply rooted problem” [with the English media.]

Blatter and the rest of his unquestioning cronies are to investigate the matter from 15-17 November during a two day banquet.

Disrupting the balance of the governing body’s clique has clearly upset Blatter and FIFA, as England’s bid has allegedly been harmed by the investigation and the bidding process has left the usually nationalistic Daily Mail in a state of utter confusion.

Earlier in the year the borderline fascist rag appeared to contradict its ethics when it allegedly harmed England’s bid to host the World Cup by printing an expose of Lord Triesmans affair with Melissa Jacobs.

Naturally the rag dumped the blame on the flame haired harpie and washed it’s hands of all responsibility, but that wasn’t enough to keep hold of columnist Gary Lineker, who walked from his position in disgust that the paper had betrayed itself, whilst he simultaneously kissed the three lions on his England shirt.

Not content with bashing the investigative press the bid committee is also willing to engage in fascist press submission according to the BBC.

“One move being considered by England’s bid is to ask all the editors of the national newspapers and broadcasters to write to Fifa declaring their support for the 2018 bid.”

Whilst it is understandable that the bid team want to do everything in their power to bring the World Cup back to England, it’s disappointing to see that it will stoop as low as attempting to silence freedom of speech in order to achieve its goal.

The Sunday Times may have set a honey trap for the FIFA members to buzz into, but if there’s corruption in the footballs world governing body then that surely needs to be addressed.

Having said that the opportunity to see the World Cup in England in my lifetime would be a fantastic experience that I would surely savour for the rest of my life, although whether it would be a memorable enough experience to quash my principles of the rights of the press I’m unsure.

Whether they shouldn’t have investigated any possible corruption for the benefit of the nation’s football fans is questionable though, as surely this democratic isle has to believe in the truth, even if it’s at the expense of hosting the tournament.

A happy medium between the two would be ideal and I sincerely hope one can be found.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Thursday November 4, 2010.
Tags: England, Premier League