FIFA have tried to mount a damage-limitation exercise after shocking new allegations of World Cup bid corruption.
Former FA and England 2018 bid chairman Lord Triesman told a Parliamentary committee on Tuesday there had been "improper and unethical" behaviour by four FIFA executive committee (ExCo) members including asking for money and a knighthood when he was lobbying for England.
But Jerome Valcke, FIFA's secretary general, said: "It could have been said before. If it was known, why did it not come to our attention? Why were we not informed?"
Two more FIFA members, Issa Hayatou from Cameroon and Jacques Anouma from the Ivory Coast, were alleged to have been paid 1.5million US dollars to vote for Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, according to claims highlighted by MPs at the culture, media and sport committee in the House of Commons.
With two other FIFA members, Amos Adamu from Nigeria and Reynald Temarii from Tahiti, banned by the body's ethics committee last year, it means no fewer than eight FIFA ExCo members - one third of the total of 24 - have either been alleged to have been or already found guilty of impropriety in relation to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.
Adamu was also named in evidence provided by the Sunday Times to the committee as having been bribed by Qatar but his suspension preventing him from voting. Valcke denied claims by MPs that FIFA had failed to reply to an official letter about the Qatar claims.
"There was a letter and we did definitely reply," said Valcke. "But there has not been a single time, apart from what we got from a UK newspaper, where we got any evidence anything was wrong during the process. I'm not saying anyone is lying but if we had clear information that there was some kind of evidence we would have immediately asked for it."
Triesman gave evidence of "improper and unethical" behaviour by four other executive committee members.
He said FIFA vice-president Jack Warner asked for money - suggested to be £2.5million - to build an education centre in Trinidad with the cash to be channelled through him, and later £500,000 to buy Haiti World Cup TV rights for the earthquake-hit nation, also to go through Warner.
Paraguay's FIFA member Nicolas Leoz asked for a knighthood while Brazil's FIFA member Ricardo Terra Teixeira asked Triesman to "come and tell me what you have got for me". Thailand's FIFA member Worawi Makudi wanted to be given the TV rights to a friendly between England and the Thai national team, said Triesman.
Source: PA
