Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal staff, and the investigation of over 30 national football association officials. It was a sensitive time for FIFA, who had been criticised in the European press for their handling of corruption accusations, which extended to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The Nigeria Football Federation and West African Football Union leader Amos Adamu and the Oceania Football Confederation and Tahitian Football Federation President Reynald Temarii had been banned from football for requesting payments in kind in the run-up to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting bid vote. A BBC episode of Panorama had been featured showing various FIFA officials refusing to
National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association). The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 when it was not held due to the Second World War. The competition originally featured 16 teams, and later 24, before settling on its current format of 32 teams starting with the 1998 tournament. Teams initially compete in