Qatar World Cup Bid Hit by New Corruption Allegations

(WFI) FIFA is facing renewed calls for a re-vote on the 2022 World Cup following new corruption allegations about the Qatar bid in a "bombshell cache" of millions of documents leaked to The Sunday Times.

Devoting 11 pages to its revelations, the newspaper alleges that Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari former FIFA vice-president, used secret slush funds to make payments totaling more than $5 million to secure votes from football officials for the Gulf state’s bid.

The dossier includes emails, faxes, phone records, flight logs, documents and accounts that reveal the activities of Bin Hammam in the run-up to the December 2, 2010 FIFA ExCo vote on the 2022 host country. They were leaked by "a senior figure" inside FIFA. Qatar 2022 is bracing itself for more revelations in the coming weeks.

The newspaper says the documents originate from several organisations including Bin Hammam’s private office in Doha, his private construction company Kemco, FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation, the Qatar FA and the offices of the Qatar 2022 bid team.

Click here to read the Sunday Times' report.

The allegations include that Bin Hammam:

• Used 10 slush funds controlled by his private company and cash handouts to make payments of up to $200,000 into accounts controlled by the presidents of 30 African FAs who influenced the Confederation of African Football’s four voting representatives on the FIFA ExCo;

•Hosted a series of lavish junkets for African football presidents at which he handed out almost $400,000 in cash and held private meetings to offer further payments while lobbying for their votes

• Paid out more than €305,000 in legal and private detective fees for Reynald Temarii, the disgraced Oceania ExCo member, after he was suspended for telling undercover reporters that he had been offered $12 million for his vote;

• Hosted CAF president Issa Hayatou on a lavish junket in Doha before sealing a $1 million deal for the Qatar 2022 bid to exclusively sponsor CAF’s annual congress in Angola. The other bids – Australia, Japan, USA, South Korea – were not allowed to lobby or promote their bids there.

Qatar 2022 issued a statement on Sunday denying the allegations, as football officials and FIFA’s former governance chief queued up to call for a rerun of the 2022 World Cup vote.

FIFA’s anti-corruption investigator, Michael Garcia, is today expected to meet with Qatar 2022 bid officials in Oman – as scheduled before the newspaper’s expose was published. It’s part of his global tour of nine bidding countries involved in the 2018 and 2022 race in which he is probing corruption claims that have cast a shadow over the bidding contest and tainted FIFA and its president Sepp Blatter.

Blatter, who said last month that it had been a "mistake" to award the World Cup to Qatar because of the heat issue, heads to Sao Paulo later this week for the FIFA ExCo and June 10-11 FIFA Congress. As he prepares to announce long-held plans to stand for re-election as FIFA boss next year, he is under mounting pressure totake a further stand on Qatar.

FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce said on Sunday he would back a rerun of the 2022 vote if Garcia,a New York lawyer, uncovers corruption in the Qatar bid. He told the newspaper that all its evidence should be made available to Garcia, urging him to widen the scope of his probe to examine the Sunday Times’ dossier.

Boyce told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek program: "I certainly as a member of the Executive Committee would have absolutely no problem whatsoever if the recommendation was for a re-vote.

"If Garcia comes up with concrete evidence - and concrete evidence is given to the executive committee and to FIFA - then it has to be looked at very seriously."

Mark Pieth, former chairman of FIFA's Independent Governance Committee appointed by Blatter, whose mandate expired in December 2013, called for a revote.

Describing the newspaper’s revelations as "exciting", he told the BBC World Service's Newsday program: "If confirmed it would really corroborate the worst of suspicions that we had of what had happened."

He encouraged the Sunday Times to share its files on the Qatar bid with Garcia. "It will help his investigation certainly. This is going to be a big shake-up."

Asked if it would be the right thing for FIFA rerun the vote: "Absolutely, yes. Certainly."

Responding to the Sunday Times’ investigation, Qatar 2022 said in a statement on Sunday that it the bid "always upheld the highest standard of ethics and integrity in its successful bid".

"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," the statement said.

It emphasized that that Bin Hammam had "played no official or unofficial role in Qatar’s 2022 bid committee."

"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."

Asked for a comment, FIFA declined urging INSIDER to "please kindly contact the office of the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the independent ethics committee Michael Garcia directly".

His New York-based law firm, Kirkland and Ellis, has yet to issue comment.

The Asian Football Confederation issued a statement on Monday in which president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa expressed "grave concerns" over media reports about the Qatar 2022 corruption claims.

The Bahraini said he was "convinced" that the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy "will do their utmost to clear the doubts".

By INSIDER editor Mark Bisson

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