Blatter: England bid not damaged

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said he believes England's bid for the 2018 World Cup will not be damaged by the fall-out of the Sunday Times investigation.

Six FIFA officials have received bans following the corruption scandal brought to light by the investigation.

Blatter told a news conference on Friday that the 'entrapment' was "not fair" but said that should not - as is feared by England 2018 - rebound on their bid.

The FIFA president said: "Why should this have an influence on the English bid? Human beings taking decision don't look so much at the documents in front of them so I don't think they will into consideration what has been published or not.

"That's my opinion."

Blatter also announced that two former FIFA employees also caught up in the Sunday Times scandal had been declared "persona non grata" by a meeting of FIFA's executive committee on Friday.

Ex-general secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen and former tournament director Michel Bacchini recommended to investigators that they should offer illegal incentives to secure World Cup votes.

Blatter said the bans imposed by the ethics committee gave FIFA a chance to "clean up" but that the investigation methods were not fair.

He added: "No, I'm not pleased about that because this is not very fair but now we have a result it gives us an opportunity to clean a little bit whatever has to be cleaned.

"But I cannot say that it is very fair when you open traps to entrap people. But if... the objective is to have a clean sheet in football then I can understand it."