{"id":65938,"date":"2014-11-17T16:44:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=65938"},"modified":"2014-11-17T16:44:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:44:02","slug":"2018-world-cup-david-bernstein-calls-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/11\/2018-world-cup-david-bernstein-calls-boycott\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 World Cup: David Bernstein calls for boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"
The English Football Association has been urged to lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup – unless Fifa implements meaningful reform.<\/p>\n
Former FA chairman David Bernstein said it was time for drastic action against football’s world governing body.<\/p>\n
“England on its own cannot influence this,” he said. “If we tried something like that, we’d be laughed at.”<\/p>\n
He says a World Cup would be weakened without Europe’s top teams and that a boycott would have public backing.<\/p>\n
“If I was at the FA now, I would do everything I could to encourage other nations within Uefa – and there are some who would definitely be on side, others may be not – to take this line,” he added.<\/p>\n
“At some stage, you have to walk the walk, stop talking and do something.”<\/p>\n
Bernstein said he also wanted Fifa president Sepp Blatter to step down but described him as “formidable, very shrewd, very smart”, conceding it would “not be easy” to bring his reign to an end.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview, the 71-year-old also said:<\/p>\n
Bernstein chose to speak out after a report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups cleared Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing but was critical of England, accusing the FA of flouting bid rules in its attempt to win the right to stage the 2018 event.<\/p>\n
Yet less than four hours of the document’s release, it was questioned by Michael Garcia, the man who conducted the two-year investigation into corruption claims.<\/p>\n
The furore surrounding the report is the latest controversy to hit football’s world governing body, which has been riddled with allegations of corruption in recent times.<\/p>\n
Now Bernstein, who led the FA for three years from January 2011, wants Fifa to change its ways or face a challenge it finds impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
When asked again if he was calling for the FA to unite with Uefa to boycott Fifa and the World Cup, he replied: “Unless it (Fifa) could achieve the reforms that would bring Fifa back into the respectable world community, yes I would.<\/p>\n
“It sounds drastic, but, frankly, this has gone on for years now. It’s not improving, it’s going from bad to worse to worse.”<\/p>\n
He said there were 54 countries within Uefa and described Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Holland as “all powerful”.<\/p>\n
He added: “You can’t hold a serious World Cup without them. They have the power to influence if they have the will.”<\/p>\n
Similar views have been expressed by German Football League president Reinhard Rauball, who suggested Uefa could leave Fifa<\/span>