This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Belgium may seek compensation over the €4.5m (£3.2m) spent on its unsuccessful 2018 World Cup bid if Fifa’s decision to award the finals to Russia is found to be fraudulent.

“If fraud is proven, it is obvious to me that we will seek compensation,” the Belgian Football Federation chairman, François de Keersmaecker, told Het Nieuwsblad. The country made a joint bid with the Netherlands that cost €9m.

The Flemish government sports minister, Philippe Muyters, told the newspaper that fraud still needs to be proven.

“But if it was the case, we will, with our partners, look to proceed with a claim,” he said.

The executive committee of world football’s ruling body, Fifa, chose Russia ahead of the Belgian-Dutch bid, a joint bid from Portugal and Spain, and one by England. Meanwhile two Argentinians charged in connection with the Fifa corruption allegations have requested house arrest after turning themselves in at a federal courthouse in Buenos Aires.

Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano, said by US prosecutors to be part of a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme for the rights to broadcast Copa América games, intend to fight an extradition order to the United States.