German embarrasses England, opposes World Cup 2018 boycott

The German Football Association would not support a boycott of the 2018 World Cup in opposition to the way Fifa is running the game.

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has said England would support any such action led by Uefa following Fifa head Sepp Blatter's re-election.

But German FA chief Wolfgang Niersbach, speaking ahead of a meeting of Uefa officials this week, said: "We don't want to go down the route of a boycott.

"That won't accomplish anything."

Niersbach added: "We don't want to get into a situation like with boxing where there are several parallel associations. That doesn't work."

Blatter, 79, was last week re-elected for a fifth term as the president of football's world governing body despite seven Fifa officials being arrested by the US Justice Department over allegations of corruption. Blatter himself has not been implicated.

Niersbach's comments come on the day that Blatter's top deputy Jerome Valcke denied allegations that he is the person responsible for a $10m (£6m) transfer of funds cited in the US indictment.

Swiss prosecutors have launched a separate investigation into the bidding process for the tournaments in 2018 and 2022, which will be held in Russia and Qatar respectively.