The Next FIFA World Cup

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Marios Lefkaritis, one of the 24 men who’ll decide where soccer’s World Cup is staged in 2018 and 2022, said his vote will be based on meetings with bidders and technical analysis not media reports.

The future venues for sport’s most-watched event will be decided by a Dec. 2 ballot of world governing body FIFA’s executive committee, which has come under scrutiny after two members were suspended for telling undercover reporters from the Sunday Times they’d exchange their World Cup votes for cash. Members of England’s 2018 bid committee feel the story has damaged the country’s chances, according to U.K. media reports.

“With all respect to the media I’m not influenced by them,” Lefkaritis said in an interview today. “I think that it’s not correct to base the decision on what the media say.”

The Cypriot declined to say whether he’d yet decided on where his vote will go.

Nigerian Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temaraii were suspended from the committee days after the Sunday Times report was published on Oct. 17. The duo may be expelled on Nov. 17 when FIFA’s ethics committee rules on their conduct.

FIFA will hold a special meeting of its executive board two days later to discuss the fallout of the ruling and also investigate reports that Qatar’s 2022 bid committee may have colluded with a joint Spain/Portugal offer for 2018.

Russia, England and a combined effort from the Netherlands/Belgium are also bidding on 2018. The U.S., Australia, Japan and South Korea join Qatar in vying to host the event four years later.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said last month his organization made a mistake when it decided to run both races at the same time. Lefkaritis agreed.

“That’s difficult,” he said. “I treat them separately; otherwise you are making collusion with yourself. If you don’t do that you aren’t going to be subjective.”

A report produced for the U.S. bid committee said staging the World Cup would be worth around $5 billion. World leaders such as U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be present for their country’s final presentations to the committee, bringing more focus on the bids and voters.

“I haven’t felt the pressure,” Lefkaritis said “I can feel the pressure for the bidders but not for me. It’s understandable and you can see they have a lot of pressure on them.”