The world governing body of football acts like a "mafia family", the former chairman of the Football Association said today.
Lord Triesman, who was the initial chairman of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup, has previously claimed four Fifa members sought bribes in return for votes.
In the light of recent media allegations of corruption in Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup, Lord Triesman stepped up his attack on Fifa, claiming attempts by the organisation's president Sepp Blatter to dismiss the issue was a tactic that would have been approved by movie Godfather Don Corleone.
"Fifa, I'm afraid, behaves like a mafia family. It has a decades-long tradition of bribes, bungs and corruption," Lord Triesman said.
"About half of its executive committee who voted on the last World Cup have had to go.
"Even its past president Joao Havelange has been removed from his honorary life presidency in his 90s.
"Systematic corruption underpinned by non-existent investigations where most of the accused are exempt from the investigation make it impossible to proceed.
"Foreign construction workers dying in their dozens in Qatar stadium construction sites are essentially ignored."
Speaking during debate on the Queen's Speech in the House of Lords, he applauded the stand taken by current FA chairman Greg Dyke against the "grotesque" accusation by Mr Blatter that criticism was racist.
He told peers: "Don Corleone, I believe, would have recognised the tactics and he probably would have admired them."
Lord Triesman also hit out at the governance of football in England by the FA.
"The fit and proper persons test failed to stop a Thai politician, a former prime minister with a notorious human rights record, from acquiring a major club in this country (Manchester City) or unknown owners controlling other great clubs that are essential to the sporting culture.
"It is important to our sports culture and it is important to fans."
He added: "Governments should stay out of sport, but they are entitled to designate the lead associations to regulate each sport and to set out the regulatory requirements and standards in the conduct of international sport.
"In the case of the FA, it will be a daunting task to take even the most modest steps, but it is time for the organisation and other sporting organisations to step up to the mark.
"Let's try to eliminate corruption wherever it exists, not least in those things that are so dear to people's hearts."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article