BBC Trust rejects claim that Panorama cost England the World Cup

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The BBC Trust editorial standards committee has rejected an appeal over a complaint that the scheduling of Panorama documentary Fifa's Dirty Secrets "adversely affected" England's bid for hosting the 2018 football World Cup.

The complainant had argued the programme, shown days before the bid announcement, was broadcast at a time "when there was a potentially negative effect" and claimed it would not have lost any impact if shown a week later.

Rejecting the appeal, as published in a bulletin today, the committee said the complaint related to an operational matter which was the ultimate responsibility of the executive board of the BBC, not the trust.

"The committee noted that, in his escalation of the complaint to the director of BBC News, the complainant had repeated that it was the timing of the programme that he felt was the issue, rather than the content of the programme itself.

"The complainant asked to be told why it was 'beneficial' to transmit the programme before the Fifa vote. The director of BBC News replied to the complainant stating that the issues raised by the programme were relevant to the bidding process, showing the manner in which Fifa officials behave.

"The director of BBC News said that the story was about to break anyway. The director of BBC News also argued that a fair Fifa process was unlikely to be affected by the programme and an unfair one was unlikely to be affected by a programme broadcast at that late stage in the deliberations.

"She concluded by saying that the BBC, as an impartial organisation, did not have a position on England's bid – either for or against it."

As the complaint had already been considered and not upheld by director of news Helen Boaden, it had already reached the highest point it could within the BBC complaints procedure.

The head of editorial standards for the BBC Trust had also decided not to proceed with the request for an appeal and the committee said this was the correct decision.

"The committee acknowledged the complainant's strong feelings on this matter, and that he felt that he had not been provided with an adequate answer to the questions he had asked the BBC.

"Nevertheless, the committee noted that the complaint was not about the impartiality of the content of the programme, but about the decision on when to broadcast it." Last year Journalism.co.uk reported that some executive committee members at FIFA had allegedly said England's World Cup bid was "killed" by media coverage such as Panorama's documentary.