by Ben Roberts
Like many others – whether they were stranded at home in the snow, or by some transport miracle sat in the office – on Thursday afternoon I was watching anxiously as FIFA delivered the news that Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Two World Cup failures for England in a year is a pretty sorry record, but given everything that’s gone on in the last week or two, how surprising is it?
Aired on Monday this week, BBC’s Panorama programme – entitled ‘FIFA’s Dirty Secrets’ – aimed to reveal the long suspected and worrying level of corruption in FIFA. Specifically, the programme found that three senior FIFA officials, all voting on the 2018 World Cup bids, took bribes in the 1990s. (Talk about a bit of bad PR for the bid!) Panorama argued that the content and revelations were absolutely in the public’s interest, and that it should be working towards uncovering corruption and wrongdoing.
The timing of the broadcast was described as "unpatriotic" by bid executives and "frustrating" by David Cameron. But what do you think? The timing was clearly a massive issue, with many people angered, but should it have been delayed? And just how much of an impact did the show really have anyway?
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