Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/417582
maltatoday, TUESDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2014 20 Sport WORLD CUP SPORTTODAY Ex-FA chief David Bernstein calls for 2018 boycott Former Football Association chairman David Bernstein has urged European nations to boycott the 2018 World Cup unless world governing body FIFA undergoes serious reform. FIFA is firmly under the spotlight again following the release of a report on Thursday by the chair- man of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee which cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, having found no serious breaches of bid- ding rules by either nation. Michael Garcia, who conducted the investigation on which Thurs- day's report was based but whose full report has not been made pub- lic, has appealed against the version released by FIFA. Allegations of corruption - stren- uously denied - continue to be lev- elled against the Qatar 2022 and Russia 2018 bid teams. According to Bernstein, who re- tired from his post with the FA last year, boycotting football's biggest tournament should be a real pos- sibility but only if other countries support England in doing so. "England on its own cannot influ- ence this - one country can't do it," he told BBC Sport. "If we tried to do something like that we'd be laughed at. I think Eng- land within UEFA undoubtedly have the power to influence FIFA, but to do so they would have to consider withdrawing from the World Cup, the next World Cup, unless proper reform - including (FIFA president Sepp) Blatter not standing (for a fifth term) - is carried out at FIFA. "If I was at the FA now, I would do everything I could to encourage other nations within UEFA - and there are some who would defi- nitely be on side, others maybe not - to take this line. At some stage you have to walk the talk, stop talking and do something. "It sounds drastic but frankly this has gone on for years now, it's not improving, it's going from bad to worse to worse. There are 54 coun- tries within UEFA. There's Germa- ny, Spain, Italy, France and Holland - all powerful. You can't hold a seri- ous World Cup without them. They have the power to influence if they have the will." Bernstein, who gave way to Greg Dyke as the head of the FA, says the events surrounding the report into 2018 and 2022 bidding went "beyond ridicule" and said he had stepped down from his role on FIFA's anti-discrimination task force as a consequence. He added: "FIFA is sort of a totali- tarian set-up. Bits of it remind me of the old Soviet empire. People don't speak out and if they do they get quashed. "The choosing of Qatar was clearly one of the most ludicrous decisions in the history of sport. You might as well have chosen Iceland in the winter. It was like an Alice in Won- derland sort of decision. "I've resigned for two reasons - firstly, the body has been pretty ineffectual. I've been on it for more than a year and we only had one meeting; secondly because frankly I don't wish to be personally associ- ated with FIFA any further." David Bernstein Whistleblowers hit back at FIFA PHAEDRA Almajid, who worked for the Qatar 2022 bid team before losing her job in 2010, said promises that her identity would be protected had been crucial to her co-operation with the ethics investigation into World Cup bidding. She and Bonita Mersiades, who worked for Australia 2022's bid, have separately registered formal com- plaints against FIFA ethics commit- tee judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. They claim his findings contained more than enough information to make the two whistleblowers easily identifiable from previous publicly- reported statements. In a letter to ethics investigator Michael Garcia, Almajid states her safety and that of her sons has been put at risk. She states: "Not only was Herr Eck- ert's summary a crude, cynical and fundamentally erroneous description of me and the information and mate- rials I provided your investigation, it directly breached FIFA's assurances of my confidentiality. "Although Herr Eckert did not name me in his report, he directly identified me and my information by connecting it to my publicly-reported statements three years ago. "Within hours of publication of Herr Eckert's summary, I had already been widely identified as one of the 'whistleblowers' in German and Brit- ish media. "Identifying me and falsely discred- iting me sends a message to anyone who may think to come forward that their credibility and protection will be in jeopardy for the rest of their lives. "Confidentiality was crucial to my co-operation with your investigation, considering my personal circum- stances, particularly the safety of my two sons and me. "I have taken great personal risks to stand up for the truth in a highly po- liticised atmosphere. However I have found myself betrayed and denigrated for being courageous enough to come forward with critical information." A joint statement issued with Mer- siades said they had not needed to speak to Garcia but had decided to do so. It says: "As we are no longer em- ployed in football in a professional ca- pacity, we were under no obligation to co-operate with Mr Garcia's inquiry, but did so through a sense of natural justice and a desire to bring closure to a long-running chapter in our lives. "To compound this situation Judge Eckert used his summary report to question our credibility." Almajid's letter adds: "A culture of silence is rewarded; those who speak out and dare to question the system are not just cast aside, but ironically denied any protection or respect un- der FIFA's own Code of Ethics." Eckert's findings cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments having found no serious breaches of bidding rules by either nation. However American lawyer Garcia has served notice that he will appeal against Eckert's findings saying they contained "numerous materially in- complete and erroneous representa- tions of the facts and conclusions"' detailed in his own report - which has not been made public. Michael Garcia: His full report has not been made public