The ethics court for football's world governing body has started proceedings on corruption allegations against two FIFA executive committee members and at least two countries bidding to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
In Zurich, the court opened its hearings Wednesday after FIFA ordered investigations into allegations by London's Sunday Times that Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii offered to sell their World Cup bid votes.
The newspaper's reporters posed as lobbyists for an American business consortium hoping to bring the World Cup to the United States. They filmed the officials discussing deals to fund football projects.
The ethics panel is also examining allegations that unnamed bidders were making deals to trade support for the World Cup bids.
Adamu allegedly offered his vote in exchange for $800,000 to build four artificial football fields in Nigeria, while Temarii wanted $2.3 million to fund a football academy in Auckland, New Zealand.
Both men are on the 24-member committee that is scheduled to vote on the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in secret ballots this December in Zurich.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP.
