1 Dec 2010

FIFA dismiss calls to postpone vote

10:23 am on 1 December 2010

FIFA has dismissed calls to postpone Friday morning's vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Switzerland says football's world governing body should delay the announcement in Zurich following renewed allegations of corruption.

But despite the International Olympic Committee saying it too would examine any evidence , FIFA says there's no indication the timing of the vote will change.

Three members of the executive committee that will determine the Cup hosts are said to have received payoffs from FIFA's former marketing agency from 1989-99.

German and Swiss newspapers say Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil, Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay and Issa Hayatou of Cameroon received kickbacks from marketing agency ISL.

ISL and its parent company ISMM went bust in May 2001, leaving debts estimated at $400 million, plunging FIFA into a financial crisis and triggering one of Switzerland's biggest criminal fraud cases.