Sunday, March 10, 2019
Time to move the venue of the 2022 World Cup
As if there was not already enough controversy over FIFA's decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the latest Sunday Times revelations about the bidding process must surely be the final nail in the coffin for that venue.
The paper reveals leaked documents showing that the state of Qatar secretly offered $400m to FIFA just 21 days before world football’s governing body controversially decided that the 2022 World Cup would be held in the tiny desert country:
The files, seen by The Sunday Times, show that executives from the Qatari state-run broadcaster Al Jazeera signed a television contract making the huge offer as the bidding campaigns to host the World Cup were reaching a climax.
The contract included an unprecedented success fee of $100m that would be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar was successful in the World Cup ballot in 2010.
It represented a huge conflict of interest for FIFA and a breach of its own rules as Al Jazeera was owned and controlled by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who was the driving force behind the bid.
The Sunday Times has also seen a copy of a second secret television rights contract for a further $480m that was offered by Qatar three years later — shortly before FIFA cut short its long-running investigation into corruption in the bidding process and suppressed its findings. This contract is now part of a bribery inquiry by Swiss police.
It means that Fifa was directly offered almost $1bn by the Qatari state at crucial times in its efforts to host and retain the right to host the 2022 World Cup.
Experts say it would be difficult to justify the amount paid by the Qatari broadcaster for the television rights deals on purely commercial terms. It is thought to be five times the sum previously paid for such deals in the region.
The paper concludes that disclosures add to the mounting evidence that Qatar effectively bought the right to host the world’s biggest sporting competition, which will be held in Doha in three years’ time.
They add that the $400m offer ahead of the vote was a clear breach of FIFA’s own anti-bribery rules, which forbid entities with links to the bid from making financial offers to the sports body in connection with the bidding process.
It is difficult to disagree with their conclusion. Surely it is time for FIFA to accept the bidding process was flawed and move the 2022 World Cup to a different country.
The paper reveals leaked documents showing that the state of Qatar secretly offered $400m to FIFA just 21 days before world football’s governing body controversially decided that the 2022 World Cup would be held in the tiny desert country:
The files, seen by The Sunday Times, show that executives from the Qatari state-run broadcaster Al Jazeera signed a television contract making the huge offer as the bidding campaigns to host the World Cup were reaching a climax.
The contract included an unprecedented success fee of $100m that would be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar was successful in the World Cup ballot in 2010.
It represented a huge conflict of interest for FIFA and a breach of its own rules as Al Jazeera was owned and controlled by Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who was the driving force behind the bid.
The Sunday Times has also seen a copy of a second secret television rights contract for a further $480m that was offered by Qatar three years later — shortly before FIFA cut short its long-running investigation into corruption in the bidding process and suppressed its findings. This contract is now part of a bribery inquiry by Swiss police.
It means that Fifa was directly offered almost $1bn by the Qatari state at crucial times in its efforts to host and retain the right to host the 2022 World Cup.
Experts say it would be difficult to justify the amount paid by the Qatari broadcaster for the television rights deals on purely commercial terms. It is thought to be five times the sum previously paid for such deals in the region.
The paper concludes that disclosures add to the mounting evidence that Qatar effectively bought the right to host the world’s biggest sporting competition, which will be held in Doha in three years’ time.
They add that the $400m offer ahead of the vote was a clear breach of FIFA’s own anti-bribery rules, which forbid entities with links to the bid from making financial offers to the sports body in connection with the bidding process.
It is difficult to disagree with their conclusion. Surely it is time for FIFA to accept the bidding process was flawed and move the 2022 World Cup to a different country.
