Fifa suspends duo over vote claim

FIFA has provisionally suspended officials Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii over allegations of corruption. The Fifa executive committee members are accused of offering to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup ahead of December’s ballot. They were secretly filmed by Sunday Times reporters, who posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies that wanted the event to go to the US.Fifa will meet again in mid-November to make a final decision. At that meeting Fifa will also study alleged agreements between member associations and their bid committees in relation to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.The world governing body did not specify which countries could be under scrutiny. Rumours of collusion between a 2018 bidder and a 2022 hopeful surfaced in September, prompting Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke to warn all countries that mutual voting deals are against Fifa rules. England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium are competing to stage the 2018 World Cup, while the United States, Australia, Qatar, Japan and South Korea are all in the hunt for 2022. Fifa’s 24-man executive committee will decide who wins both ballots on 2 December when they meet in Zurich to conduct a secret vote. The US - the last remaining non-European bidder - pulled out of the running for 2018 on Friday to focus its efforts on 2022. On the same day, England pulled out of the bidding to host in 2022. The allegations of vote selling have plunged the selection process into crisis and Fifa chief executive Sepp Blatter admitted “it was a sad day for football” before insisting “confidence will be restored”. Nigerian Adamu, 57, allegedly said he wanted $800,000 (£500,000) to build four artificial football pitches. This would be against Fifa’s rules. The Sunday Times footage appears to show him asking for money to be paid to him directly for endorsing a US bid.Tahitian Temarii, 43, who played for French club Nantes during the 1980s, is alleged to have asked for a payment to finance a sports academy. He has already pleaded his innocence. “I am 100% convinced of my integrity,” Temarii, head of Fifa’s technical and development committee, previously told Inside World Football. “That’s why I have stayed on.” Agencies

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Fifa suspends duo over vote claim