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29 March 2024

England 2018 lodge complaint against Russian chief

Alexei Sorokin spoke to a newspaper about London's high crime rate and levels of alcohol consumption. (SUPPLIED)

Published
By Reuters

England's 2018 World Cup bid team lodged a formal complaint with Fifa on Tuesday against the chief of rivals Russia over critical comments about their country.

An England bid spokesman confirmed a complaint had been made to soccer's world governing body and that it referred specifically to comments made by Russian 2018 bid chief Alexei Sorokin, rather than the Russian bid as a whole.

Sorokin's comments appeared in the local Sport-Express paper in which he spoke of London's high crime rate and levels of alcohol consumption.

However, Fifa's rules forbid competing nations to make any comments about rival bidders.

Sorokin was quoted as saying in the newspaper: "It's no secret that London has the highest crime rate when compared with other European cities, and the highest level of alcohol consumption among young people."

The incident follows an investigation into newspaper claims that two Fifa executive board members were offered to sell their votes ahead of the decision on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.

FIifa are also investigating claims of collusion and vote-swapping between rival nations for the 2018 and 2022 bids.

Russia and England are bidding for the 2018 finals along with joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands.

The United States, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Australia are the candidates for the 2022 tournament. Fifa will announce the winning bids on December 2 in Zurich.