(BBC) Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has made a scathing attack on the BBC Panorama programme examining the bidding to stage the 2018 World Cup.
The documentary will air three days before the 2 December vote, and Warner said: it was “deliberately designed to negatively impact” on England’s bid.
Warner, whose vote is seen as crucial to England’s hopes, claims the programme is “a personal vendetta”.
The BBC said the programme on 29 November is “in the public interest”.
Warner, a government minister in Trinidad, is president of the Concacaf federation covering North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, and could deliver three of the 22 FIFA executive members’ votes to England.
He has been invited to lunch in Zurich by Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of the vote, and David Beckham met him while opening a coaching clinic in Trinidad in September.
Warner, who said last week that he had still to decide which way he would vote, spoke of his dissatisfaction with the Panorama investigation in a vehement e-mail to Press Association Sport.
“I am sure it’s a personal vendetta. But it is sooooooooooo stupid… for it can have no effect on me personally or on anyone else in Fifa for that matter.”
Warner added that there was no new material in the programme and that he was not losing sleep over it.
BBC Panorama responded by saying: “Panorama has a reputation for strong, independent and probing investigative journalism. The findings of the Panorama investigation into Fifa will be in the public interest.”
Last week England 2018 leaders branded the BBC “unpatriotic” for screening the investigation so close to the vote, fearing it will lead to a backlash from Fifa members.
The furore follows an undercover investigation by the Sunday Times in October in which it was alleged that Fifa members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii asked for money in return for voting on World Cup hosting rights.
Adamu, from Nigeria, was later suspended from all footballing activity by Fifa’s Ethics Committee for three years, while Tahitian Temarii received a one-year suspension. Both were also handed fines.
They are now prohibited from taking part in the vote to decide who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals.
England face competition from Netherlands/Belgium, Russia and Spain/Portugal for the 2018 tournament.
The host of the 2022 contest will also be decided on 2 December, with Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea and the United States competing for the rights.
