FIFA man asked England to pay bid team for education centre

LONDON, Apr 11 (AFP): The vice president of FIFA, world football's governing body, asked the leaders of England's failed World Cup 2018 bid team to pay for an education centre, The Times newspaper reported Monday. David Triesman and David Richards, the then chairman and deputy chairman of England 2018, told the British broadsheet that Jack Warner brought up the subject during a meeting in London 18 months ago. Bidding nations are forbidden from offering gifts to delegates, and the pair claim that the proposal for the centre in Warner's native Trinidad and Tobago was immediately dismissed. "He didn't say: 'Do this and I'll vote for you'," Richards told the paper. "But it was always at the back of my mind. I did nod my head at Triesman as if to say: Let's not get into this. "What he said was England should be building this kind of education block as a legacy throughout the world. He did say Trinidad and Tobago wanted one. He said it was an education set-up that he wanted for the children of Trinidad and Tobago," Richards added. "It was absolutely out of the question," Triesman, who was also head of England's Football Association (FA), said. England believed Warner's support was key to a successful bid, but in the end were humiliated after only securing two votes from the 22 voting FIFA delegates.