‘Qatar paid millions’ for World Cup bid support

UK newspaper report accuses Bin Hammam of using slush funds to pay cash to top football officials to win support for Qatar’s World Cup bid.

By (AFP)

Published: Mon 2 Jun 2014, 8:18 AM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 10:36 PM

A former top Qatari football official paid more than $5 million to get support for the emirate’s controversial campaign to host the 2022 World Cup, a British newspaper alleged on Sunday.

The Sunday Times said it had obtained millions of emails and other documents relating to alleged payments made by Mohammed bin Hammam, then a Fifa executive member for Qatar.

Doha denies wrongdoing

Organisers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have denied “all allegations of wrongdoing”. The Qatar 2022 bid committee’s statement on Sunday stressed that Bin Hammam “played no official or unofficial role in the bid committee”. The Qatari statement added that “we vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar’s bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter.” - AP

It alleged that Bin Hammam, who is also an ex-Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president, used slush funds to pay cash to top football officials to win a “groundswell” of support for Qatar’s World Cup bid.

Bin Hammam, who launched an abortive challenge against incumbent Fifa President Sepp Blatter, resigned from his Fifa and AFC posts in 2012, shortly before he was banned for life from football administration by the global governing body’s ethics committee.

Football’s world governing body Fifa is investigating the 2010 vote that awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and the 2018 tournament to Russia, following previous corruption accusations.

A report by Fifa chief investigator Michael Garcia, a top US lawyer, is to be finalised this year. He is due to meet senior officials from the Qatar 2022 organising committee in Oman on Monday. But that meeting may now have to be postponed in light of the Sunday Times revelations.

Fifa and Qatar are already under pressure because the 2022 event will be held in the searing heat of the Qatar summer. Fifa’s president wants the tournament held in the northern winter, for the first time, because of the problem.

British media have made repeated allegations about the Qatar campaign to secure the tournament however.

The Sunday Times said Bin Hammam had made payments of up to $200,000 into accounts controlled by the presidents of 30 African football associations, and hosted hospitality events in Africa at which he handed out further funds, to get backing for Qatar’s bid.