ZURICH: World football federation FIFA has issued a reminder to both 2026 World Cup bidders about the precise rules of engagement ahead of the vote in Moscow on June 13 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

President Gianni Infantino has said the reformed process should be “bullet-proof” after the corruption scandal swirling around the last World Cup awards – for 2018 and 2022 – undertaken in December 2010.

Secretary-general Fatma Samoura has written to all 211 national associations and all members of the governing FIFA Council and thus, indirectly, to the 2026 bid challengers from Morocco and their rival co-hosting effort from Canada, Mexico and the United States (branded United 2026).

Samoura indicated a concern that the controversial issue of development aid would creep into the campaigning.

She wrote: “All members of the FIFA Council and delegates of the FIFA Congress should take their personal shortlisting or selection decision on the basis of their own assessment of the merits of the bids without being influenced by supportive or adverse comments of other officials.

“Therefore, all officials are requested to refrain from expressing publicly their personal opinion about the merits of one or more bids during the bidding procedure.”

The issue of development funding is hard to avoid because both bids want to stress the financial value to FIFA of rewarding their bid – and a significant amount of FIFA’s revenues are distributed to national associations through development programmes.

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