Published>Fri, Oct 29 10 12:56 AM
FIFA's executive committee did not discuss the troubled bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups when it started a crucial two-day meeting on Thursday, instead deciding to leave the matter until Friday.
FIFA is due to choose the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments in Zurich on Dec. 2 but the process has been hit by a corruption scandal.
"2018 and 2022 were not discussed today and remain on the agenda for the second part of the meeting," a FIFA spokesman told Reuters.
With barely more than a month to go, the format of the voting has not been announced and it is still not clear how many voters there will be.
FIFA said Thursday's meeting lasted four hours and included all 22 members of the executive committee eligible to take part. FIFA would not give any further details and none of the committee members was available to comment.
Last week, FIFA provisionally suspended two members of the executive committee -- Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti -- over allegations that they offered to sell their votes for the two World Cup hosts to undercover newspaper reporters from the Sunday Times.
FIFA's ethics committee is due to make a definitive decision on the pair on Nov. 17. It could extend the suspension, meaning that there will be only 22 voters at the Dec. 2 election instead of 24.
FIFA is also investigating claims of collusion and vote-swapping between unnamed bidders for the 2018 and 2022 bids, which is banned by the rules.
The joint Spanish and Portuguese bid to host the 2018 World Cup has denied suggestions of an agreed pact with Qatar, who are bidding for the 2022 edition, to manipulate the voting process.
England and Russia are the other candidates for 2018 along with a joint Dutch/Belgian bid. Japan, South Korea, Australia and United States are bidding for 2022.
This week, the Swiss parliament's legal committee said it was considering an amendment to the country's anti-corruption laws, which do not currently cover officials from the international sports organisations based in the country.
Source: Web Search
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