Coe: England 2018 can overcome media backlash 26/11/2010
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Lord Coe has insisted that England's World Cup bid team can overcome any negative impact from the Panorama expose of Fifa and land the 2018 tournament at next week's vote.
The planned Monday (November 29) Panorama broadcast is expected to make allegations of corruption against people involved with Fifa, something unlikely to go down well with the organisation's members.
England 2018 chief executive Andy Anson last week accused the BBC of being "unpatriotic" and "sensationalist" by choosing to air the programme so close to the December 2 vote.
London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games chairman Coe had to deal with the fallout from Panorama allegations made against the International Olympic Committee while he was bidding to bring the event to London, although that investigation was aired almost a year before the vote.
Coe, who is also on the board of England 2018 and has provided regular advice to bid chiefs, believes that Anson and his colleagues must put the current controversy to the backs of their minds next week.
"You have to focus absolutely on the job at hand," he said.
"[Outside] noises are not what is going to get you across the line – they're not going to stop you getting across the line.
"It is really a very important discipline in the process of a bid to just simply focus on the messages.
"You deliver those messages right to the moment where there is nowhere else to go and you maintain clear heads."
Panorama's will be the second media investigation into Fifa in recent weeks after a Sunday Times report led to six Fifa officials being banned.
There are fears that investigation has hurt England's bid to land the 2018 tournament, with some Fifa members unhappy with what they viewed as entrapment.
Meanwhile, the Qatari president of the Asian Football Confederation has confirmed for the first time that he will support Spain/Portugal's bid for the 2018 World Cup.
Mohamed Bin Hammam insists, however, that there is no “illegal” pact between the Iberian bid and Qatar's bid for 2022.
The bids were last week cleared by Fifa's ethics committee of collusion on the grounds of lack of evidence.
Bin Hammam told Spanish sports paper Marca: “Asia supports the Iberian bid.
“There's an excellent relationship between Asian football and Spanish football – we have done a lot of projects together, but that doesn't mean there has been a pact between us.
“It is something that happens between a lot of bids and it's not at all illegal.
“Qatar is going to support Spain and Portugal and they will support us, but we're not breaking any rules.”
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