FA failed to learn World Cup lessons, says report

The culture, media and sport committee say England’s 2018 bid team lacked “a number of components” and that the groundwork had not been laid with FIFA and UEFA.

The report says the FA should carry out a review into what went wrong – the England 2018 bid lost in the first round with only two votes.

FIFA, meanwhile, are criticised for their reaction to claims about bribery by members, and about unethical behaviour by members during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid campaigns.

The report states: “England’s bid team appears to have lacked a number of the components of a successful bid. Lessons did not appear to have been learned from previous studies with regard to the composition and unity of the bid team, and the messages it needed to project.

“More fundamentally, it appears that the groundwork for a successful bid had not been laid effectively with football’s international bodies.”

The committee also backed the BBC’s decision to screen a Panorama investigation into allegations of FIFA corruption in the same week as the 2018 vote – former bid chief executive Andy Anson called the decision “unpatriotic”.

The timing and content of the Panorama programme were “amply justified by the public interest in FIFA’s governance and, more generally, in independent and impartial journalism”, says the report.

The report says the committee was “appalled” by the allegations of corruption made against FIFA members during their inquiry and there should have been a full and independent investigation.

“Instead, FIFA has given every impression of wishing to sweep all allegations of misconduct under the carpet and of dismissing anyone bringing allegations to them with an approach bordering on contempt,” says the report.

Committee chairman John Whittingdale said: “FIFA’s governance and its process for awarding competitions is in need of fundamental reform.

“Yet the re-election of Sepp Blatter and the decision to drop the FIFA ethics committee investigation following Jack Warner’s resignation suggest nothing has changed. The credibility of FIFA has been hugely damaged and it is now up to Mr Blatter to deliver on his promises made at the time of his re-election and to show that allegations of misconduct and corruption will no longer be swept under the carpet.”