English FA hire former FIFA man Siegler to aid 2018 bid

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) Markus Siegler, FIFA's former Director of Communications and Peter Hargitay, the special advisor to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have been appointed as consultants to work on England's 2018 World Cup bid.

In a statement, the English FA said that Hungarian-born Hargitay, whose European Consultantcy Network has been awarded the consultancy contract, will end his work for the FIFA President next month ''in order to avoid any conflict of interest''.

Siegler, a 49-year-old Swiss, left FIFA after 12 years in September. In July 2002 he was appointed FIFA's Director of Communications, an executive director of FIFA and member of the FIFA management board.

A spokesman for the FA said in the statement: ''We are delighted to be working with a company that has huge knowledge and experience of international football associations and great individual contacts within the world game.

''We expect a highly competitive bidding process with several countries from three continents already having voiced an interest to bid for the 2018 World Cup, and it is very important we have such international experience working with us.'' The Netherlands and Belgium have posted their plans for a joint bid, while Australia, Russia, China, the United States and Mexico are also considering bidding.

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