Former FA Chair David Bernstein said that Europe’s heavyweight nations "should pull out of the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia" unless FIFA undergoes drastic reforms, according to Mark Cue of the LONDON TIMES. The 71-year-old believes that the FA "must garner support" from within UEFA as FIFA comes under increasing pressure to make public investigator Michael Garcia’s report into allegations of corruption over the bidding process for 2018 and 2022 finals. Bernstein said, “England on its own cannot influence this -- one country can’t do it. ... I think England within UEFA undoubtedly have the power to influence FIFA, but to do so they would have to consider withdrawing from the World Cup. ... 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" (LONDON TIMES, 11/17). The PA reported Bernstein said the events surrounding the report into 2018 and 2022 bidding went "beyond ridicule" and said that he has stepped down from his role on FIFA's anti-discrimination task force as a consequence. He said, "FIFA is sort of a totalitarian set-up. Bits of it remind me of the old Soviet empire. People don't speak out and if they do they get quashed" (PA, 11/17). The BBC reported 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. As for criticism of England by the FIFA report, Bernstein "accused football's world governing body of trying to deflect attention from its own failings." Bernstein: "I don't think much to these accusations. I don't think we should get away from the real issue. The real issue is FIFA governance and trying to achieve real change. But it won't happen easily." Bernstein also described the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, where "blistering summer temperatures" means the event could be switched to winter, "as one of the most ludicrous decisions in the history of sport. He added, "You might as well have chosen Iceland in the winter. It was like an Alice in Wonderland sort of decision" (BBC, 11/17).
