FIFA hits back at lawmakers
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Shanghai Daily, August 3, 2011
FIFA has told British lawmakers to get their facts straight before criticizing football's world governing body for alleged corruption.
In a letter on FIFA's website, FIFA's top administrator Jerome Valcke warned John Whittingdale, who heads parliament's sport committee, that politicians "should act and speak on facts, and not on unsubstantiated headlines."
Whittingdale chairs a parliamentary committee which investigated England's failed 2018 World Cup bid and also published allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar's 2022 bid. Valcke reproached Whittingdale for not updating the committee's report after a whistleblower withdrew bribery allegations leveled at Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid.
The Qatar whistleblower alleged to journalists from The Sunday Times of London that two FIFA executive committee members were paid US$1.5 million to vote for Qatar, which was awarded the 2022 World Cup in December. The claims were never published but were made public using parliamentary privilege by Whittingdale's committee.
Former bid media officer Phaedra Almajid last month claimed that she had made up the allegations.
Secretary general Valcke claims that the committee should have published an update to its report from July 5 to reflect the new information.
"It is one thing for the media to not be interested in stories which kill previous headlines by so-called investigative journalists, but it is another entirely for your committee to neglect this turnaround," Valcke said.
Whittingdale, though, said that his committee only publishes evidence submitted to it, while the retraction was made in a press release.
