FIFA told to postpone World Cup vote
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FIFA should postpone the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups after allegations of vote-selling, a former FIFA Executive Committee member said on Wednesday.
Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, the former German FA (DFB) chief was a highly influential Executive Committee member until 2007 and is still a member of FIFA's Players Status Committee.
Although he will not have a vote on December 2 when the destination of the World Cups is decided, he said it could be tricky to go ahead with a decision then until an investigation sheds full light on the affair.
"The awarding (of the World Cups) should be postponed until the question is cleared up, in a negative or a positive way," he told Sport Bild magazine.
"Four weeks would not make a big difference."
"The Executive Committee is not a pile of corrupt people. It is just that some people took a wrong turn," said Mayer-Vorfelder, who headed the DFB from 2001 to 2006 and is still active in FIFA circles.
Other FIFA sources have said they expect the vote to go ahead as planned on December 2 and FIFA have given no indication it intends to change the date.
Last week, two members of FIFA's executive committee were provisionally suspended on suspicion of selling their votes in the contest to host the two tournaments.
Nigerian Amos Adamu and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii were banned from all football-related activity for 30 days.
FIFA's own ethics committee is investigating allegations that they offered to sell their votes when approached by Britain's Sunday Times journalists posing as lobbyists for an American consortium.
The International Olympic Committee has also urged FIFA to follow the same tough approach against corruption in World Cup bidding as the Olympic body took following the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is an IOC member, has called him to keep him informed of the investigation into allegations of vote-selling and collusion in the contest for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
