Football: ‘FIFA needs reform from outside’

"Fifa need to clean up their game" - Australian senator

SYDNEY:

Australia’s sports minister said that no government should fund another World Cup bid until Fifa had been subject to external scrutiny.

Senator Mark Arbib was also critical of Fifa’s bid process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts, a process in which Australia was humiliated when it received just one Fifa vote to host the 2022 tournament won by Qatar. “Seeing what I have seen in terms of the bidding process, and now we hear about collusion between bidding nations, it’s pretty clear it wasn’t a fair playing field,” said Arbib.

“Fifa need to clean up their game and until they do no government should have confidence in their processes.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2011.