FIFA aims for swift probe on Triesman comments

FIFA’s ethics committee will probe former Football Association chief Lord Triesman’s alleged claims about rival bidders in the 2018 and 2020 World Cups swiftly, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Asked if the committee announced on Monday would report on possible breaches by Lord Triesman or possible substance of his alleged claims, such as bribery, Jerome Valcke, secretary general of world football’s governing body replied: “On both.”

“We will look into it as soon as possible,” Valcke told journalists, adding that he hoped the ethics committee would give an overview by the time the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa on June 11.

“I want definitely to have something decided before the World Cup because some of the comments were about the World Cup,” he said.

Lord Triesman quit as head of England’s bid team for the 2018 World Cup on Sunday and also stepped down as president of the FA following unsubstantiated claims published in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that he had accused Spain of seeking to bribe referees, and suggesting similar Russian moves.

Triesman allegedly told a former aide that Spain were planning to bribe referees at this summer’s World Cup and offer their support to Russia’s bid for the 2022 World Cup if they were to help.

Although FIFA had said Monday it would not comment before the ethic committee conducts its investigation and issues a report, Valcke dubbed the allegations in the article as “crazy.”

Valcke said “we have the time to make sure this is wrong and false.”

The England 2018 World Cup bid team faxed letters of apology to both associations.

FIFA have requested an FA report on the affair.

Last week Triesman, accompanied by David Beckham, handed over England’s bid book for the 2018 World Cup to FIFA chief Sepp Blatter in Zurich.

England staged the World Cup for the first and only time in 1966, which was also the only occasion they have lifted the trophy.

The chief of Russia’s bid, Aleksey Sorokin, has called for football’s governing body to “take appropriate measures”.

The 15 member ethics committee chaired by former Swiss international Claudio Sulser was set up for the first time in November 2006, in the wake of scandals affecting senior footballing officials on FIFA bodies.