Qatar World Cup 2022: Former Fifa Executive Committee member claims report that vote was offered for $5m has been ignored
Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert's report summary has been roundly criticised and Australian Murray claims he reported evidence of members exchanging their vote for 'hard cash'
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Your support makes all the difference.A Fifa executive committee member was reported to the world governing body's ethics committee after asking for "hard cash" in return for votes during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup - but no action was taken, it has been claimed.
Les Murray, an Australian who was on the Fifa ethics committee at the time, says he reported the demand to his superiors after being informed of it by people working for the Australia 2022 bid.
Sources with knowledge of the cash-for-votes demand said the unnamed Fifa Ex Co member asked for US dollars 5million to build a sports centre.
Murray has now questioned why his report of the incident was not mentioned in ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert's findings on the investigation into World Cup bidding.
Murray wrote on his blog on the website of Australia broadcaster SBS: "Three years ago, when I was still on the Fifa ethics committee, I was informed by sources inside the Australian bid team that a member of the Fifa executive committee was asking the Australians for hard cash in return for votes.
"I reported this information up the chain of the ethics committee at the time, as was my duty, but I see no mention of it in Eckert's report."
Eckert and ethics investigator Michael Garcia were due to meet on Thursday after disagreements between the two on the outcome of the investigation.
The German judge last week cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, saying rule breaches by the bidding countries were "of very limited scope"
Garcia responded by notifying Fifa that he intends to lodge an appeal against the decision due to "numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of the facts".
Meanwhile, a broad survey of English fans has found 73 per cent would support an England boycott of future World Cups if it was backed by all Uefa countries.
The survey by market research firm Northstar of 420 people interested in football also showed 43.5 per cent backed a boycott if some other European countries took part.
Former FA chairman David Bernstein this week called for Uefa to threaten to boycott the 2018 World Cup to drive through change at Fifa.
PA
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