The president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohamed Bin Hammam, has confirmed that he will support Spain/Portugal’s bid for the 2018 World Cup.
Qatari president Bin Hammam also insists that there is no pact between Spain/Portugal’s bid and Qatar’s attempt to land the 2022 World Cup.
The bids were last week cleared by FIFA’s ethics committee of collusion on the grounds of lack of evidence.
Bin Hammam told 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.”
Bin Hammam’s support comes on the back of CONMEBOL general secretary, Eduardo Deluca, confirming on Thursday that the South American federation’s three votes would be going to the Iberian campaign.
Earlier this week, the Spain/Portugal bid chief executive Miguel Angel Lopez said he was “moderately confident” of winning the vote on December 2.
The joint Spain/Portugal bid is competing with England, Russia and a combined Netherlands and Belgian bid for the right to host the 2018 World Cup finals.
