The Dutch FA (KNVB) on Tuesday "will submit itself to an ethical investigation by FIFA and ordered an independent forensic audit into its unsuccessful joint bid with Belgium to host the 2018 World Cup finals, following newspaper allegations of bribery," according to Mark Gleeson of REUTERS. The KNVB said that its lawyers and financial controllers had "studied all documentation from the bid, which saw the two countries lose out to Russia, and had found no wrongdoing." But is also said that it was waiting for more details from the Belgian FA in order "to get a total picture." A KNVB statement said, "Furthermore, the KNVB will turn to the ethics committee of FIFA, which has previously evaluated the Holland-Belgium bid and which was also subjected to integrity checks by the American researcher (Michael) Garcia." The Dutch daily De Volkskrant earlier this month said that the Netherlands and Belgium in '09 paid a lobbyist "closely linked" to a former FIFA VP to help garner votes for its bid. The newspaper said that a sum of €10,000 was given to Amadou Diallo, who at the time "was affiliated to ousted Asian football chief Mohammed Bin Hamman, later banned from the sport for life for alleged corruption." The paper said, "Diallo at the time was bin Hamman's right-hand man. The payment therefore transgressed FIFA's code of conduct." The joint bid, which cost €10M, "went up against a joint bid from Portugal and Spain plus England and Russia in the vote for the host of the 2018 finals" (REUTERS, 12/22).
