On Tuesday, the English Football Association courtesy of its chairman Greg Dyke has called again on FIFA to review the decision to award Qatar the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup. Qatar's winning bid has since been plagued by corruption rumors, Reuters reported.
Michael Garcia, who has been tasked to submit a full report on his investigation into the allegations, is set to submit his report in September as opposed to the original schedule at the end of July.
"If Mr Garcia shows that there have been corrupt activities, the whole thing should be reconsidered," Dyke said.
Dyke has been one of the many skeptics of the Gulf nation's capacity to host the tournament, considering that the schedule would fall at a time when heat temperatures in Qatar are at its peak. It can be recalled that the Brazilian heat had been a primary complaint among teams and coaches during some of the tournament matches in the Latin American nation. Apart from the weather, Dyke had talked about FIFA president Sepp Blatter's dislike of the British media as another reason why England chances of winning a World Cup bid would be next to impossible.
"Mr Blatter's view of the English media is such that he says why would you want to take it to England?" the former head of the BBC said.
On the other hand, Dyke had somewhat given his support to Russia in light of the latest airplane incident last week, Reuters said. It has been speculated that Russia would be stripped off their winning bid for downing a plane-full of passengers over Ukraine. Western powers has since blamed separatists backed by Moscow as the people who had sent the plane down.
"I think there will be a World Cup in Russia. (A decision to move a World Cup should not be based on) one week's events," Dyke told reporters after a parliamentary committee hearing.
