FBI email hacking probe comes to England

The FBI are understood to be looking into the possibility that the USA and England World Cup bids were the victims of attempts to hack into their email accounts.

The investigation centres on evidence pointing to attempts by Russia to hack into rivals bids’ computer systems, according to a source with knowledge of the interviews of England 2018 officials.

Initially, Russia were rivals of both England and USA for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments before the USA decided to concentrate on the 2022 tournament.

Russia triumphed in the bid for 2018 in a vote by Fifa’s executive committee a year ago while England went out in the first round of voting.

Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, beating the USA in the final round of voting.

The FBI interviews with England 2018 staff took place within the last month.

Meanwhile, German football federation’s outgoing president has again sharply criticised FIFA’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, saying the Gulf nation is too small to host the event.

Theo Zwanziger said Qatar had been rated as the worst of all the candidates bidding for the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar won the final vote over the United States. Australia, Japan and South Korea also made unsuccessful bids. “Political interests should not prevail if the fundamentals, the sporting conditions, have been somewhat perverted,” Zwanziger said yesterday.

“I never understood how such a small country could get the World Cup.”

Zwanziger is a member of Fifa’s executive committee. He was appointed in October to head one of the new committees established to clean up football’s governing body, which has been fighting allegations of bribery and corruption.

Last Friday, Zwanziger announced he would step down next October, one year earlier than his term was scheduled to finish.

General secretary Wolfgang Niersbach was picked Wednesday as his designated successor.