Three countries competing in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting contest insisted on Tuesday that their campaigning is not affected by reports of alleged bribery and collusion involving two FIFA voters and at least two bid rivals.
Bid leaders from Russia, Australia and Japan fufilled commitments at a scheduled football business conference in Zurich, near the headquarters of FIFA which is investigating allegations reported by the British Sunday Times newspaper.
''We don't see how it impacts our bid,'' Russia 2018 chief executive Alexey Sorokin said. ''We haven't been part of (the cases), and not even circumstantially mentioned in this.''
Australia's Ben Buckley said his team's 2022 strategy would not change, even while FIFA's ethics committee considers sanctions against executive committee member Reynald Temarii, who is pledged to back the bid.
''We don't spend an enormous amount of time trying to think through what may or may not happen. It's not productive,'' Buckley said.
Yuichiro Nakajima, leader of Japan 2022, said his bid committee could not afford to be distracted.
''We read the reports with great interest because it's about something close to our heart, but it has not really affected us,'' Nakajima told delegates at the International Football Arena event held to coincide with FIFA top officials arriving in Zurich for scheduled meetings.
All three leaders would have risked ethics trouble on Tuesday had they speculated on the identity of rivals being investigated for possible collusion.
FIFA rules warn World Cup candidates not to criticize rivals, and Russia discovered Tuesday that England has asked for a formal apology over Sorokin's reported recent comments about London crime levels. Also in the 2018 race are joint bids from Belgium-Holland and Spain-Portugal. The 2022 contest pits Australia and Japan against the United States, South Korea and Qatar.
The ethics panel is currently busy with The Sunday Times' evidence.
The newspaper secretly filmed former FIFA general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen saying Spain-Portugal and Qatar struck a deal giving each seven votes from the 24-man FIFA executive in a secret ballot scheduled Dec. 2. Officials from the accused bids have not confirmed they are being investigated, while Portuguese federation president Gilberto Madail dismissed the allegations.
Ten days ago, the newspaper released footage of its undercover reporters' interviews with FIFA executives Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti's Temarii seeming to offer their votes for sale. The ethics committee provisionally suspended both from duty until Nov. 17 when it is expected to give verdicts.
Sorokin said he awaited the newspaper revelations last weekend knowing of ''no such possibility'' that a Russian official could be implicated.
''It is with curiosity that we read all this rather than concern and fear and expectation of something negative happening to us,'' he told reporters. ''I have not been present at a conversation that was even close, or carried even a shadow of what has been alleged in the newspapers.''
Sorokin said a bid prepared over two years could be jeopardized by breaking FIFA's rules.
''All that can go, can be thrown down the toilet because of a simple conversation,'' he said.
Russia's representative on FIFA's ruling panel, sports minister Vitaly Mutko, will attend its two-day session starting Thursday.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter will chair its talks scheduled to choose a voting process for the poll.
Eight of the nine bidders are directly represented on the panel. The other, Australia, was promised support from Temarii, who heads its neighboring Oceania confederation.
Australia officials said Temarii's absence from Zurich would not damage their work.
''While he is important - and the congress of his confederation decided he had to vote for us - clearly we are not a one-man show,'' bid consultant Peter Hargitay told reporters at a briefing.
Hargitay said Australia's lobbying is being led by ''charismatic'' bid chairman Frank Lowy who had 11 different contacts set for Wednesday.
Sorokin said routine bid work had to continue.
''We are simply waiting for the conclusions from the ethics committee.''
