FIFA to investigate Scottish offical's remarks

LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) Scotland's John McBeth will not be taking up his post representing Britain with FIFA this week after publication of remarks he made criticising, among others, African and English soccer officials.

FIFA said in a statement jointly made with McBeth today, that the outgoing Scottish FA president, would now stay away from the world governing body's 57th Congress in Zurich where he was due to be installed in his new job.

''FIFA and John McBeth are in agreement that his recent statements to the media in Scotland shall be submitted to the FIFA Ethics Committee for examination,'' the statement said.

''Until a final decision has been reached by the FIFA Ethics Committee, the British associations' vice-presidency of the FIFA Executive Committee is to remain vacant.'' McBeth briefed Scottish journalists last week and his astonishingly candid comments were published yesterday.

The Scotland yesterday newspaper quoted him as saying of FIFA president Sepp Blatter: ''He's a tricky customer but I suppose anyone in that position has to be because you are dealing with people who, to put it mildly, have a totally different code of ethics.'' McBeth was quoted in The Express yesterday saying: ''FIFA is a bit more distant to Scottish football than UEFA (European soccer's governing body), but I know one or two of the characters involved who are reasonable individuals.

''But I know another two or three and I would want to count my fingers after I shook hands with them.

''What I will do is go and try to stay true to my beliefs and hope I don't get seduced into it all. If I come across corruption, I think I've got to expose it.'' McBeth said that in his new post he would have to be kinder to the English, adding: ''I keep telling them that their notion of themselves is unbelievable. The rest of the world hates their guts.

''By and large the four British countries know what fair play is and we know when we're stepping out of line...but as soon as you hit Africa it's a slightly different kettle of fish.

''They're poor nations and they want to grab what they can. I presume the Caribbean is much the same,'' Scotland yesterday quoted McBeth as saying.

The FIFA Congress is being held on Wednesday and Thursday.

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