FIFA reject World Cup collusion claims

FIFA have dismissed allegations of vote-trading for World Cup bids between Spain, Portugal and Qatar.

Football’s governing body said on Thursday that an investigation showed no evidence that Spain and Portugal, joint bidders for the 2018 World Cup, and Qatar, bidding to host the 2022 event, had unlawfully agreed to exchange votes.

It had been suggested by a series of news outlets that the countries had illegally agreed to exchange votes but FIFA’s investigation found no foul play.

“After investigating the suspicions against Portugal and Spain, we didn’t find sufficient grounds to reach the conclusion that there was any collusion,” Claudio Sulser, chairman of FIFA’s executive committee, said.

The announcement came on the same day that two FIFA executive committee members, Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii, were banned from involvement in football after being accused of accepting cash in exchange for World Cup votes.