Should The BBC air the FIFA exposé a week before the vote?

[im]

Or, as the 2018 bid chairman says, is this unpatriotic?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9201248.s...

Would the French, Spanish etc...?

I think not.

[JM16v]

I think unpatriotic may be the wrong word.

I just wouldn't want the bid to be harmed. It would mean a lot to millions to have the world cup and the BBC putting their journalism ahead of that benefits no one. They don't need to air it so soon before the vote.

But then again freedom of the press is important

[Castrol Craig]

its nothing to do with the freedom of the press, its more to do with those labour luvvies at the bbc giving milipede more ammo when we lose the 2018 bid.

wkers.

[spikeyhead]

Castrol Craig said:

its nothing to do with the freedom of the press, its more to do with those labour luvvies at the bbc giving milipede more ammo when we lose the 2018 bid.

wkers.

Or more to the point, they'll then get a lovely holiday somewhere other than Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.

[Beardy10]

No.

I think the BBC should think about how much the general public (who pay their wages) would enjoy having a World Cup here....and lets face it it's probably good for the BBC having it here too.

I think it's very important to have free speech and also to have journalists able to expose wrongdoing....in thsi cae let them do it the week after.

[im]

It appears to be academic now anyway as 3 South American countries have today declared for the Spain/Portugal bid...surprise surprise.

[Victor McDade]

Should the BBC have aired the panorama expose on BAE/Saudi corruption like it did in 2007? Potentially it could have lost Britain billions in investment however is that really the concern of an institution like the BBC?.

I don't think there is an easy answer either way when it comes to cases like this.

[Corsair7]

The should air the programme, but AFTER the event. You dont report on possible voting corruption before the result, you proove the result invalid after the event.

Muppets.

[im]

Well having just seen the contents of tonights Panorama we can kiss goodbye to 2018.

Per the BBC's website:

"Three senior Fifa officials who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids took bribes in the 1990s, according to the BBC's Panorama.

Nicolas Leoz, Issa Hayatou and Ricardo Teixeira took the money from a sport marketing firm awarded lucrative World Cup rights, the programme alleges.

The alleged bribes are included in a confidential document listing 175 payments totalling about $100m (£64m)."


Not a hope in hell of their votes or the countries who've already declared so of the 22 voting we know of 6+ who won't be in England's camp before it already starts.

The other FIFA officials will undoubtedly punish us by not giving us the 2018 competition.

[anonymous-user]

russia will get it and qatar the one after that despite us and the australians having the better facilities already built. fifa will do the same thing that bernie has done to f1, take it to new countries that are prepared to throw millions on new stadiums that will get used once or twice and then left to rot (birds nest stadium in beijing anyone?!)

[alxce]

No and the very least any of us can do is email a formal complaint to the BBC. Mine has just gone in and I hope many others do the same, only takes a few minutes.

[FeatherZ]

They were right to do so imo, I couldt care less if we got the world cup or not tbh, im fed up with believing the hype every 4 years.

[Blib]

im said:

The other FIFA officials will undoubtedly punish us by not giving us the 2018 competition.

fk 'em.

The BBC exposes grubby corruption at the top of World football and England loses out? THe delegates should be congratulating us on exposing such practices. Not condemning us.

If they do, then they're as bad as those who took the backhanders. Arrogant muppets.

Any sane decision would give us the World Cup in a moment. IMO, the World Cup should be a celebration of football. It's not a bauble to be handed out to a country to "encourage" the game. FIFA's got millions of dollars to do that.

We'd embrace the tournament in a way that few other nations could.

But, they'll give it to the Spanish who had it only a few years ago. Or, the Russians, who have done bugger all to combat the despicable racism that pervades the game over there.

I have very little time for Talksport's Adrian Durham. However, tonight his schtick is that England should pull out of FIFA if we fail to win the 2018 World Cup & I agree with him.

fk the lot of them.

And, breathe.

[dreamz]

this is ridiculous

the allegations are from 1999

over 10 years ago

wtf?!

talk about dragging up corpses!!

[Puggit]

A pointless exercise by the BBC - almost completely irrelevant to the 2018 competition.

All serious football fans know FIFA is corrupt already.

Our unwillingness to play the bribery game means it's unlikely we'd have won the competition to host 2018, this will ensure we don't.

[rhinochopig]

As someone who doesn't like football, I've got to ask the question, can we actually afford to host it, or will it be profitable?

[Justices]

Perhaps Panorama and the paper that ran the initial story are on the take too. It's very possible a rival bidding nation "encouraged" the exposure at a such crucial time. The latest story has been known for a while, but suddenly it comes up? Surely any of these editors must know it's not the best idea to run these stories in the lead up to the decision if it risks us getting the event?

There is an incredible amount of cash on the table for whoever gets the cup, a cheeky mil here and there to convince people that need convincing to throw a spanned in the works isn't beyond the realms of possibility. I'd go so far as to say it's very probable.

[Puggit]

rhinochopig said:

As someone who doesn't like football, I've got to ask the question, can we actually afford to host it, or will it be profitable?

According to the programme, the Dutch did the sums and reckon they would lose out on £150m by hosting it.

The primary reason is that FIFA demand to run the competition tax free... (requiring a law to be passed).

[CaptainSlow]

Blib said:

im said:

The other FIFA officials will undoubtedly punish us by not giving us the 2018 competition.

fk 'em.

The BBC exposes grubby corruption at the top of World football and England loses out? THe delegates should be congratulating us on exposing such practices. Not condemning us.

If they do, then they're as bad as those who took the backhanders. Arrogant muppets.

Any sane decision would give us the World Cup in a moment. IMO, the World Cup should be a celebration of football. It's not a bauble to be handed out to a country to "encourage" the game. FIFA's got millions of dollars to do that.

We'd embrace the tournament in a way that few other nations could.

But, they'll give it to the Spanish who had it only a few years ago. Or, the Russians, who have done bugger all to combat the despicable racism that pervades the game over there.

I have very little time for Talksport's Adrian Durham. However, tonight his schtick is that England should pull out of FIFA if we fail to win the 2018 World Cup & I agree with him.

fk the lot of them.

And, breathe.

+1, time for us to take our game back, we've seen how dirty cheating on the pitch has crept into the game from abroad, we must make sure we don't get infected by the corruption off the pitch.

[im]

Blib said:

...England should pull out of FIFA if we fail to win the 2018 World Cup & I agree with him.

fk the lot of them.

And, breathe.

Sadly thats a non-starter. The English FA are a part of UEFA who in turn are a part of FIFA. We'd have to pull out of UEFA as well and that means the ECL & UEFA Cups.

Bottom line on that scenario is that the clubs themselves will not allow that to happen as it would turn England into a football graveyard financially.