As reported by the News Media Association: In a statement in the House of Commons last week, which was also made in the House of Lords at the same time, the Culture Secretary said: "I would like to pay tribute to the insight team of The Sunday Times, without whose investigations many of these allegations may never have come to light.
"Football is the world’s game, and it is our national game. It is a fundamental part of British life and culture. Yet these revelations have dragged the game’s reputation into the mud. The time has clearly come for a change, and we will offer whatever support is necessary to the Football Association to see that change realised."
Writing in The Sunday Times this week, the Culture Secretary continued: “We have cause to celebrate the contribution of British journalists, first among them the Insight team at The Sunday Times.
“When Fifa’s house of cards began to tumble last week, it was because the base had been kicked away by Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, whose investigations for The Sunday Times into the scandal surrounding the bidding process for the right to host the 2018 World Cup were first published nearly five years ago, followed shortly by their counterparts at the BBC’s Panorama programme.
“In the face of legal threats and the omerta-like code of football administrators, they refused to back down and doggedly pursued their story, pulling at the tiniest of threads until the full scale of the scandal was dragged into the light.
He added: “If real change really does come to Fifa, football fans the world over will long be grateful to the tenacious British journalists who helped to make it happen.”
FA chairman Greg Dyke has also praised the role of the Sunday Times this week describing the story as “a good piece of journalism,” and The Sunday Times' investigative story has also received praised from within the news media industry.
Speaking in the House of Lords this week Lord Black, chairman of the News Media Association's legal, political and regulatory affairs committee, said: "I am sure none of us needs reminding about the crucial role of a free press.
"If we did, we need look no further than the role the press has played in uncovering the squalid corruption at the heart of international football, for far too long brushed under the carpet by those who should have been scrutinising and regulating it."
Writing in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins highlighted the “merciless” pursuit of the story by The Sunday Times while FT editor Lionel Barber tweeted his congratulations to The Sunday Times team that broke the story.
