LONDON, June 4 (UPI) -- The United Kingdom's Secretary of Sports said Thursday England would be prepared to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 if Qatar loses the event due to an ongoing bribery and corruption scandal.
The likelihood of England hosting the world's largest sporting event in 2022 is low, considering FIFA rules state the World Cup cannot be held on the same continent twice in a row. Russia is hosting the 2018 World Cup.
U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale spoke about England's willingness to host and about the FIFA scandal at the House of Commons.
"If FIFA came forward and asked us to consider hosting it, we have the facilities in this country and of course we did mount a very impressive, if unsuccessful, bid to host the 2018 World Cup," Whittingdale said. "In terms of the decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, that is obviously something which we are watching, but at the moment that decision stands."
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Allegations are mounting that Qatar bribed its way into winning the bid for hosting the 2022 World Cup.
"If it were decided to change that, I think as the chairman of the English FA Greg Dyke observed, if Russia hosts the World Cup in 2018 it does seem very unlikely that another European country would host it in 2022," Whittingdale added.
FIFA, the world's top soccer governing organization, is embroiled in a scandal after 14 FIFA officials and corporate executives were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges including "racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies, among other offenses, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer."
Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, who was also indicted, said in a television address on Wednesday that he will reveal everything he knows about corruption in FIFA. He also said he can establish bribery links from FIFA officials to the general elections of Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.
Warner said the transactions include FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who announced he would resign on Tuesday.
"I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country," Warner said in the television address.
Warner, who served as Trinidad and Tobago's security minister, resigned from all soccer activity in 2011 due to bribery allegations. He later resigned as security minster due to a fraud investigation.
"I also will give them my knowledge of financial transactions at FIFA including, but not limited to, Sepp Blatter," Warner said. "I have been there for 30 consecutive years. I was a heartbeat away from Blatter."
