What a joke FIFA are!! it's unbelievable.....from the realms of fantasy but too outlandish for that almost!!

I'm nearly wetting myself laughing reading the articles!!

Read on.....

FIFA launched an internal inquiry on Friday into sleaze allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany, after evelations that death threats were made against one of the members of the organisation's powerful executive committee.

New Zealander Charles Dempsey, the Oceania football chief, told FIFA officials that threats had been made against him. He decided to abstain when it came to final voting - he had been expected to back South Africa - and Germany won by a single vote.

A spokesman for soccer's world governing body said the German Football Federation (DFB) and the organising committee will join in the inquiry.

Other allegations surround a letter, purporting to be from the Germans, offering gifts in return for votes, but FIFA have already dismissed this as a hoax.

The death threats however, are being taken seriously.

FIFA communications director Keith Cooper, speaking during a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in, described how Dempsey had mentioned the threats to other delegates at Thursday's executive committee meeting.

Cooper, who attended the meeting, said: "Charlie referred at the beginning of the meeting to legal advice which he had taken because of the difficult personal situation he found himself in and I would absolutely subscribe to the description of intolerable unbearable personal pressure."

Asked to detail the manner of the pressure Dempsey was under, Cooper said: "If you think of your own personal safety and that of the people who are close and dear to you."

When asked if Cooper meant death threats, he replied: "If you want to interpret it that way I would not disagree with it."

When asked where the death threats came from, he added: "I don't know. That's not my business but he (Dempsey) made that clear to the meeting."

Dempsey, 78, himself cited "very strong reasons" for his decision to abstain but refused to detail what they were.

"I had very strong reasons but I am not going into them," he said.

His voice quaking, he said: "I did not do it lightly. I do not make decisions like that lightly. I was under unsustainable pressure.

"I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of it until I have discussed it with my executive."

The decision to abstain in the crucial final vote at FIFA headquarters in Zurich has not gone down well in Scottish-born Dempsey's adopted homeland.

Sports Minister Trevor Mallard described Dempsey as an "international embarrassment" while Prime Minister Helen Clark stuck the boot in, saying she was upset by the result as she had promised New Zealand's support for the South African bid.

Mark Burgess, New Zealand's representative on the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), said Dempsey, 78, had not followed instructions given to him at the Confederation's meeting in Samoa in May - to vote for England and once they were out of the running to support South Africa.

"I can't believe he has done this intentionally to shoot himself in the foot back here," Burgess said.

"The vote was a democratic one in Samoa, they still preferred England in the first vote, but on the second the vote was to go to South Africa.

Meanwhile, South Africa's unsuccessful bid committee for the 2006 World Cup has launched their own investigation into Thursday's decision to award the tournament to Germany.

Bid chairman Irvin Khoza said Dempsey had "betrayed the South African people".

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

Answers

What the hell is a guy of 78 doing that far away from home? This is ludicrous. He should have retired when he reached 65.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2000

Meanwhile, UEFA's president Lennart Johansson made a bid to soothe African anger at being denied a first World Cup for the continent by saying he now supported a system of continental rotation and would be keen to endorse an African country as host nation for the 2010 tournament.

(Two points - one England will likely miss out on their bid for 2010 then. And secondly, when does Australia get to hold the world cup as the leading nation in CONCACAF)

Oh and FIFA's own investigation, held in conjuunction with the German FA concluded that nothing untoward had gone on.

-- Anonymous, July 08, 2000