The vision of a prime minister, a future king and England's most recognised footballer prostrating themselves before Fifa's pseudo-papal state was never going to be edifying. days before the 2018 World Cup vote, the English bid is starting to feel like complicity in the supreme authority's slavering pursuit of the game's astronomical wealth, both over and underneath the counter.

Guilt by association is not a charge David Cameron, Prince William or David Beckham would answer to. They would say the prize exceeds any compromise they might have to make by playing politics in Zurich. But the reality is that all those on the catwalk in this parade are going along with the world governing body's refusal to reform. To see world leaders confer respectability on such a dubious private club is unendingly worrying.

The allegations of influence-peddling outlined by Panorama, which follow a Sunday Times exposé into alleged vote-selling by Fifa executive committee members, have rendered Thursday's vote hollow, except that a verdict will be delivered anyway, and two bidders will fly away from the lakes counting the gains from being awarded the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

Sepp Blatter's dysfunctional "football family" will be left with a choice: become a transparent international parliament for the world's favourite game or continue to provide a means for opportunists to sell power to would-be tournament hosts and private companies.

The modern Fifa is what happens when an administrative body mutates into a rampantly commercial animal. No longer mere custodians of the game, they become deal-makers inflating the price of television contracts and fostering a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately culture. Countries hoping to earn the ultimate honour of staging sport's biggest event after the Olympics are encouraged to engage in a beauty contest which is so constructed to allow favours to be swapped, inducements to be laid out and – if the Sunday Times was correct – individual executive committee members to profit at the ballot box.

Don't let them vote, it only encourages them. Only a minor tweak of the old anarchist slogan is required to capture the feelings of many as the Zurich cabaret opens. In a more idealistic world the 2018 and 2022 votes would be postponed indefinitely, or all the bidders would assert their displeasure by withdrawing their applications, leaving the lawns of Fifa HQ as the only viable venue until corruption is faced. Temptation exists partly because Fifa is less busy than Uefa, the European equivalent, or the national associations who kneel at Blatter's throne. Fifa has fewer tournaments to organise and so less to bestow. When the chance comes round, World Cup staging is instantly ensnared with inter-confederation politics and the ambitions of less wealthy countries hunting a greater share of the booty.

Many times the thought has arisen: are horsetrading and acquiescence a price worth paying for an event England have not won since 1966? Here, international football is an afterthought to the global proselytising of the Premier League. The mother country would have a hard time refuting the charge that the English just don't take the international game seriously, however giddy St George turns every couple of years.

The stock defence will be that Panorama's allegations are "old". Much was already known about Fifa's relationship with the now defunct marketing firm International Sports and Leisure (ISL) from past revelations and a Swiss court case. The payouts by ISL at the time were not a criminal offence in Switzerland but the alleged scale ($100m) highlighted by Andrew Jennings and the BBC is undeniably shocking, even if Panorama succumbed to the usual silly cult of the presenter.

Among those accused are the heads of African, Brazilian and South American football (Issa Hayatou, Ricardo Teixeira and Nicolás Léoz). Jack Warner, a major powerbroker and intended lunch partner for Cameron, has been wooed nonstop by England's bid leaders. Fabio Capello's team were even shipped out to Trinidad and Tobago for a game partly to please Warner, the Concacaf president, who faces fresh accusations that he "used his position to try to help touts obtain tickets for the 2010 World Cup". These allegations are being pinned not to minor functionaries but senior members of the politburo.

The long reach of the Panorama material – 10 years and more – increases rather than diminishes its seriousness. It says long-term survival is possible at Fifa even after malpractice has been exposed. Casual observers will see the same old faces presenting themselves for another chance to play God.

The four named by Panorama are in addition to the Exco members accused in the Sunday Times investigation, which means six of the 23 who were scheduled to vote on Thursday – two of whom have been suspended and will not take part – are the subject of suspicion. In its urge to bring a World Cup final to Wembley for the first time in 52 years, the English bid called Panorama's timing "unpatriotic" and talked of "our friends" on the committee. Realpolitik, they would call it. Desperation, others would say.