World football's governing body has been rocked by a series of scandals in recent years, most recently allegations published by The Sunday Times newspaper relating to impropriety in Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
Fifa's bullish response to the allegations has led several high-ranking Uefa delegates to call for president Sepp Blatter to step down after 16 years at the head of the organisation.
And Triesman, who was FA chairman when England launched its failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, has launched a scathing public attack on the Fifa leadership, likening it to the Corleone crime family depicted in the Godfather films.
"Fifa, I’m afraid, behaves like a mafia family. It has a decades-long tradition of bribes, bungs and corruption," he said during a debate on the Queen's Speech in the House of Lords.
"About half of its executive committee who voted on the last World Cup have had to go.
"Even its past president Joao Havelange has been removed from his honorary life presidency in his 90s.
"Systematic corruption underpinned by non-existent investigations where most of the accused are exempt from the investigation make it impossible to proceed.
"Don Corleone, I believe, would have recognised the tactics and he probably would have admired them."
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