England FA urges UEFA to organise European boycott for next WC over bid corruption

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Last Updated : Nov 18 2014 | 2:16 PM IST

England's Football Association's former chairman David Bernstein has urged the board to lobby UEFA to organise a European boycott for the next World Cup unless FIFA reforms itself.

Bernstein, who was FA chairman between 2011 and 2013, is the latest senior figure to call for united and dramatic European action following the controversy surrounding FIFA's report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Bernstein also criticised FIFA for being a totalitarian set-up and said that choosing Qatar as 2022 hosts was one of the most ludicrous decisions in the history of sport, branding it as an 'Alice in Wonderland' sort of decision, Stuff.co.nz reported.

Speaking after even the man who conducted the investigation, Michael Garcia, questioned the findings of last week's report Bernstein said that football's credibility was suffering enormously under FIFA.

He said that England on its own cannot influence this, and believes that the nation within UEFA undoubtedly has the power to influence FIFA, but he added that to do so they would have to consider withdrawing from the next World Cup, unless proper reform, including president Sepp Blatter not standing for a fifth term, is carried out at FIFA.

Bernstein said that if he had been at the FA now, he would do everything he could to encourage other nations within UEFA to take this line.

Bernstein said that unless the world football governing body could achieve the reforms that would bring FIFA back into the respectable world community he agreed to be directly calling for the FA to unite with UEFA to boycott FIFA and the World Cup.

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First Published: Nov 18 2014 | 2:00 PM IST

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