ESPNsoccernet has been told that Lord
Triesman's allegations of corruption aimed at FIFA over World Cup
votes has "set English football back ten years''.
Rather than rejoicing that FIFA's depth of corruption is finally
exposed by Lord Triesman, there is a growing sense that English
football will become more isolated and hated across the global
game.
Lord Triesman rocked the football world in Tuesday's hearing
with the Parliamentary committee on football governance, and now
ESPNsoccernet can reveal the divisions the allegations
have caused.
One senior figure said: "This has put English football back ten
years. There is no doubt this has caused so many problems within
FIFA that they will never forgive us."
Ever since the Sunday Times' allegations ahead of the
2018 World Cup vote, the FA became so alienated that the new
chairman David Bernstein made it a strategic policy decision to
attempt to reconcile differences with FIFA.
Part of that 'building bridges' policy was to back Sepp Blatter
in the forthcoming presidential elections even though virtually the
entire FA would, in reality, like to have seen him step down.
However Lord Triesman's allegations have caused a massive stir
and another high ranking FA insider told ESPNsoccernet:
"The FA received a letter from FIFA addressed to our chairman David
Bernstein, they want to see all the evidence Lord Triesman gave to
the select committee, as for the Sunday Times, we sent
them all that material before.
"As we stand we are faced with allegations, although we are not
denying they might well be true. We can make it clear that it is
extremely unlikely that we shall be pushing for a recount of the
2018 bid votes. After the decision we wished Russia the best of
luck, and we shall leave it at that."