The Times Editorial: Robert Mugabe would have had a few words of sympathy for Sepp Blatter this week if a British government report on the Fifa boss had been released just a little earlier.

A few hours after the president of Zimbabwe had entertained the president of Fifa to tea in Harare, a scathing report appeared in London. It was issued by a House of Commons select committee that had investigated why England failed to be named host for the 2018 World Cup.

During its hearings, the committee heard evidence that implicates Fifa in all kinds of bribery and corruption. The committee took the evidence so seriously that it suggested that Fifa might want to investigate it as well.

Instead, the committee reported, Fifa and Blatter "gave every impression of wishing to sweep all allegations of misconduct under the carpet and of dismissing anyone bringing allegations to them with an approach bordering on contempt".

It's not a stretch to believe that Mugabe would have given Blatter a pat on the back for treating the former colonial power so dismissively.

Both men might have skin as thick as a rhino's, but the latest admonition of Blatter and Fifa carries a bit more weight than a mere newspaper investigation, such as the recent London Sunday Times probe that also found evidence of corruption in the football organisation.

If nothing else, the British report will be embarrassing to Blatter as he hob-nobs with the International Olympic Committee in Durban this week.

The committee was once in the same boat that Fifa is drifting in now. Under the presidency of the fascist Juan Antonio Samaranch, it had a reputation for corruption similar to Fifa's.

The difference was that, when evidence of corruption emerged, the committee investigated it rigorously. Heads rolled and the Olympic movement cleansed itself. Fifa and Blatter show no sign of following this example.