Fifa announce new anti-corruption unit

Fifa president Sepp Blatter (GETTY IMAGES)

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has announced a new body to investigation corruption.

The two-chamber ethics committee will see one part investigate allegations while the other part judges cases.

There have been no details however about how the ethics committee members will be appointed.

It is also believed that there was no move by FIFA's executive committee meeting today to re-open investigations into the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.

Blatter will hold a news conference later today but said on Twitter that the executive committee had approved a "two-chamber Ethics Committee".

FIFA's single-chamber ethics committee failed to gather enough evidence to prosecute some allegations of vote-rigging during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.

Blatter added that it was an "historic day" for FIFA reform following recommendations by anti-corruption adviser Mark Pieth.

Former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, a member of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) headed by Pieth, has said FIFA's level of investigation into allegations of misconduct during bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was unsatisfactory.

Goldsmith said: "We have spent a lot of time looking at the allegations of past misconduct including the World Cup hosts selections.

"We have looked closely at the way allegations regarding World Cup host selections have been dealt with and we have not been satisfied with the level of investigation which has taken place.

"We are concerned about two things - we need a system in place for the future and stronger controls in a number of different areas.

"But we also need structures that will give people confidence in FIFA and in order to do that it's necessary to understand what may have gone wrong in the past."

Former England 2018 bid chairman Lord Triesman made a number of claims in Parliament about alleged impropriety by FIFA members but the organisation said there was no case to answer.

There were also claims by a whistleblower that two FIFA members were paid cash gifts to vote for Qatar's 2022 bid - something strongly denied by the Middle Eastern country, and later withdrawn by the person involved.

England won just two votes as Russia won the 2018 bid, while Qatar triumphed in the vote for the 2022 tournament.

PA