Russia 2018 World Cup committee head denies vote pre-decided - report
29/10/2015 19:09
MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The head of the organising
committee for the Russian 2018 World Cup denied on Thursday that
awarding the soccer tournament to Russia had been pre-arranged.
Earlier this week FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who has been
suspended for 90 days by the Ethics Committee of world soccer's
governing body amid a corruption investigation, told Russia's
TASS news agency: "It was agreed that we go to Russia (for 2018)
... and for 2022 we go back to America." ID:nL8N12S40S
Clarifying the remarks, Blatter's spokesman Klaus Stoehlker
later told Reuters that the president meant he had proposed such
an allocation of the two tournaments but that it was not agreed
beforehand because FIFA's executive committee had to vote on it.
Echoing Stoehlker, Alexei Sorokin, the chief executive of
the Russian committee, said the vote was what mattered and that
he was not aware of it having been rigged in any way.
"If there were people who had a clear position on who to
vote for it's their right, they are entitled to that. It's their
business to make decisions about world football," Sorokin told
World Football Insider in an interview.
"All I know is we did not know the outcome of the vote until
after the vote."
Fourteen soccer officials and sports marketing executives
have been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for
bribery, money laundering and wire fraud in an ongoing
multi-million-dollar investigation.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Gareth Jones)
((alexander.winning@thomsonreuters.com; +7 495 775 1242;
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alexander.winning.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: SOCCER FIFA/RUSSIA WORLDCUP