Qatar World Cup corruption claims spark calls for re-run of vote
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is coming under renewed pressure to re-run the vote for the 2022 World Cup after a whistleblower leaked documents revealing $5m of secret payments to help Qatar win its bid to host the tournament.
Mohammed bin Hammam, the Qatari ex-president of the Asian Football Confederation, channelled the payments to football officials in the run-up to and after the vote in December 2010 to win support for his country’s world cup bid, according to the leaked documents published by the Sunday Times.
Qatar’s world cup organisers have always maintained that Mr bin Hammam, who was a Fifa executive committee member at the time of the vote, played no role in its bid campaign.
The Sunday Times alleges some of the payments were made to senior African football officials so they could influence the four African representatives on the Fifa executive committee of 24 members voting in the election.
John Whittingdale MP, who headed an inquiry into allegations surrounding the Fifa vote for the 2018 World Cup, in which England was a bidder, said the latest claims required urgent investigation. “This makes Sepp Blatter’s position almost untenable, given he has been dismissing these rumours for the past three years,” said Mr Whittingdale.
“As for Qatar, if it is now clear that the decision made involved hugely inappropriate payments and possible corruption, that makes the case for reopening the vote overwhelming.”
Jim Boyce, Fifa’s vice-president, told the BBC’s Sportsweek that any evidence of corruption surrounding the 2022 vote should be referred to Fifa’s ethics investigator, former US attorney Michael Garcia. Mr Boyce said he would have “no problem” if Mr Garcia recommended a revote because of wrongdoing.
The Sunday Times said payments of €305,000 in legal expenses and private detective fees were also made to former Fifa executive committee member Reynald Temarii. He was banned from the vote because of a newspaper sting showing him asking undercover reporters posing as officials for the US 2022 bid for money for his vote.
The Sunday Times alleges the payments were to support Mr Temarii’s appeal against his ban, a move that blocked his deputy – who was favouring the rival Australian bid – from taking his vote.
The newspaper said it was in possession of an electronic database of “hundreds of millions of emails, accounts and other documents” and that the leak had come from a Fifa whistleblower concerned about the Qatar 2022 vote.
Corruption allegations have mired the Qatar World Cup in controversy and are being investigated by Mr Garcia.
The new claims are not the first problems to beset Qatar’s hosting of the tournament. Human rights groups have also accused the emirate of failing to protect the rights of thousands of workers who are building the infrastructure for the competition.
Last month, Doha responded by promising to abolish labour regulations that create conditions tantamount to slavery, but human rights groups called the measures vague and said they did not go far enough.
Mr Blatter himself said last month that awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar may have been “a mistake”, although he was referring to the problem of playing the tournament in extreme summer temperatures.
Fifa is meeting in São Paulo next week ahead of the start of the World Cup in Brazil on June 12, when it will discuss this and other issues relating to the 2022 tournament.
Mr bin Hammam was banned from football for life following claims he bribed Caribbean football officials during his election campaign for the Fifa presidency. He declined to respond to questions from the Sunday Times.
The Daily Telegraph claimed in March a company run by Mr bin Hammam paid nearly $2m to former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner shortly after the December 2010 vote.