Beckenbauer: IOC showing way for FIFA votes
Reuters - Tuesday 05 July 2011, 17:04
DURBAN - The International
Olympic Committee's way of picking Games hosts has shown FIFA
the way forward in cleaning up World Cup votes, Germany great Franz Beckenbauer said on Tuesday.
Beckenbauer reckoned FIFA president Sepp Blatter's proposal
to allow all members to select World Cup hosts and not just the
20-odd Executive Committee would provide much-needed
transparency for the embattled governing body of football.
"The IOC gave FIFA the idea," Beckenbauer, in Durban to
support Munich's 2018 Winter Olympics bid, told reporters.
"Why not try it the other way?"
The IOC elects hosts with every single member entitled to
vote and not just its own executive board.
"I think FIFA and football in general are in a bad
condition. All these rumours hurt football. There is speculation
but no evidence," added Beckenbauer, a former FIFA Executive
Committee member who led Germany's successful 2006 World Cup
bid.
FIFA and Blatter have been in the firing line for months,
especially since awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar with
allegations of bribery among its committee members.
Qatar denies any wrongdoing.
A British parliamentary report this week accused FIFA of
trying to brush the issue under the carpet and urged an
investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups
to Russia and Qatar. England lost out in the 2018 vote.
An in-house FIFA inquiry also found evidence of corruption
linked to the recent election campaign for the FIFA presidency.
Blatter has proposed all of FIFA's 200-plus members should
vote on World Cup bids in the future.
Beckenbauer said Munich, running against South Korea's
Pyeongchang and France's Annecy, would witness a tight vote when
the 2018 Games host is unveiled on Wednesday just like he did
almost exactly 11 years ago with the 2006 World Cup bid.
Germany won by a single vote against South Africa.
"I hope the decision [for 2018] is not made yet," he said.
"The Munich team is very strong. Now it comes to an end. It is
going to be a close decision."