This will be the week when FIFA's ethics committee will rule on the cases of FIFA executive committee members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii, suspended after being caught on videotape talking about support for soccer projects in return for their votes on the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Many in FIFA circles have complained about the sting operation conducted by the Sunday Times, but FIFA was warned by the English bid committee about a fake lobbying company operating in FIFA matters. A day after FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke was warned, executive committee members were warned to be vigilant. Seventeen days, the Sunday Times published the first of its series of exposes.

England's bid committee is fearful the uproar over the British media coverage will negatively affect its candidacy, and its chairman, Geoff Thompson, and international president, David Dein, took the unusual step of writing all FIFA executive committee members to distance themselves from the Sunday Times and of a forthcoming BBC documentary.

"We hope England's bid will not be judged negatively due to the activities of individual media organizations, regardless of one's view of their conduct," they wrote. "We hope you appreciate that we have no control over the British media."