The Sunday Times claims to have caught Nigerian Amos Adamu, a FIFA executive committee member, on film, telling an undercover reporter he would guarantee his vote in exchange for £500,000.
The newspaper's reporters said they were working for a group of private American companies which wanted to help win the World Cup for the US.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter in a letter other executive committee members said an in-depth investigation against the two FIFA executive committee members would be conducted noting that the allegation is a "very unpleasant situation” for world soccer’s governing body.
"The information in the article has created a very negative impact on FIFA and on the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups,” he said.
Blatter said the investigation will be conducted by FIFA’s independent ethics panel working together with secretary general Jerome Valcke.
He also asked executive committee colleagues not to comment publicly on the subject, but made no mention of whether the 24-man committee’s secret vote in Zurich on Dec. 2 to choose the 2018 and ’22 hosts would be delayed while FIFA conducts its probe.
The US pulled out of the race on Friday, saying it wanted to focus on bidding for the 2022 tournament. England is one of four countries left in the race to host the 2018 tournament.
The reporters involved in the story emphasised they had no links to the bid and that the US committee's campaign had been completely above board.
During a meeting in London with Adamu, also president of the West African Football Union, he is said to have told the reporters that he wanted money to build four artificial football pitches in his home country.
The newspaper said a second member of the committee, Reynald Temarii, who is president of the Oceania Football Confederation, asked to be paid for his vote as well.
In his case, they said he wanted the money to finance a sports academy. FIFA has asked for all materials relating to the allegations.
A spokesman said: "FIFA and the FIFA Ethics Committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and will continue to do so.
"FIFA has already requested to receive all of the information and documents related to this matter, and is waiting to receive these material. In any case, FIFA will immediately analyse the materials available and only once this analysis has been concluded will FIFA be able to decide on any potential next steps. In the meantime, FIFA is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter."
The other contenders to host the 2018 World Cup are Russia and joint bids from Belgium-Holland and Spain-Portugal. The Oceania Football Confederation also announced today they were investigating the reports.
A statement said: "OFC is aware of the story that appeared in The Sunday Times in England today.
"As such, OFC is currently looking into the matter.”
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