England try to stem 2018 bid corruption fall-out

England 2018 bid chiefs have written to all members of FIFA s executive stressing they ve had nothing to do with two recent British media probes into corruption allegations surrounding the World Cup bidding process.

The letter, a copy of which has been seen by AFP, urges all members of the 24-man FIFA executive committee which will vote for the 2018 World Cup hosts on December 2 to avoid making negative judgements about the bid as a result of the media furore.

There are concerns amongst the England 2018 team of a possible anti-English backlash as a result of an investigation by the Sunday Times newspaper which has led to several FIFA members facing an ethics committee probe.

And they fear an edition of the BBC s Panorama programme investigating alleged FIFA corr…