The Qatar 2022 World Cup bid committee has denied any wrongdoing after allegations of widespread corruption during the bidding process.
English newspaper The Sunday Times claims it has received “hundreds of millions” of documents which allegedly reveal disgraced former FIFA executive committee member Mohamed Bin Hammam made payments to football officials in return for votes for Qatar.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the bid committee said Bin Hammam had no association with them while denying any suggestion of wrong-doing.
The committee said it was co-operating with the ongoing investigation led by FIFA’s chief investigator Michael Garcia.
“The Qatar 2022 Bid Committee always upheld the highest standard of ethics and integrity in its successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” the statement said.
“In regard to the latest allegations from The Sunday Times, we say again that Mohamed Bin Hammam played no official or unofficial role in Qatar’s 2022 Bid Committee. As was the case with every other member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, our bid team had to convince Mr. Bin Hammam of the merits of our bid.
“We are cooperating fully with Mr. Garcia’s on-going investigation and remain totally confident that any objective enquiry will conclude we won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup fairly.
“Following today’s newspaper articles, we vehemently deny all allegations of wrong-doing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar’s bid and our lawyers are looking in to this matter. The right to host the tournament was won because it was the best bid and because it is time for the Middle East to host its first FIFA World Cup.”
The Sunday Times alleged Bin Hammam, also the former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president who was banned for life from football administration by the FIFA ethics committee, had made payments into accounts controlled by the presidents of 30 African football associations and accounts controlled by the Trinidadian Jack Warner, a former vice-president of the world governing body.
FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, who was not on the executive committee at the time of the vote, said he would be in favour of re-running the vote for the 2022 World Cup if the allegations were proven.
He said: “As a member currently of the FIFA executive committee, we feel that any evidence that people involved were bribed to do a certain vote, all that evidence should go to Michael Garcia, whom FIFA have given full authority to, and let’s await the report that comes back from Garcia.
“If his recommendations are that wrongdoing happened for that vote, I certainly as a member of the executive co would have absolutely no problem whatsoever if the recommendation was for a re-vote.”
THE KEY POINTS…
What are the new allegations?
That Mohamed bin Hammam paid millions out to fellow members of FIFA’s executive committee and other officials in Africa. A sum total of $1.6 million went to disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack Warner which included $450,000 before the host cities vote back in December 2010, when FIFA’s board chose Qatar despite wodespread concerns about the climate in the Middle Eastern nation.
Also, as the boss of CONCACAF, Warner should technically have supported his region’s candidate, the USA, whom Qatar defeated 14-8 in the final round.
What happens next?
The Sunday Times reported that their evidence has been passed on to Michael Garcia, the former U.S. Attorney in New York appointed by FIFA’s executive committee in July 2012 to head an independent investigation into 2018-2022 World Cup bidding.
Garcia and his team have toured the world speaking to the teams behind the various bids. He is scheduled to meet Qatari officials from today in Oman.
Could the vote be re-run?
It has to be pointed out that as yet no wrongdoing has been proven, so the question is a little premature. But should Garcia’s findings and report go on to recommend that the vote be re-run then it would present a very compelling case for that to happen.
