The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has categorically denied fresh allegations from the Sunday Times newspaper, claiming that FIFA Executive Committee members received payments to vote for the country’s successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
Evidence was submitted by the Sunday Times to a parliamentary inquiry revealing that Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were allegedly paid US$1.5m each, to vote for Qatar.
A QFA statement was released yesterday evening, May 10, reading: “The Qatar Football Association is disappointed by the publication today on the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee website of evidence provided to the Committee by The Sunday Times which contains serious and baseless allegations against us. We categorically deny these allegations. As The Sunday Times itself states, these accusations ‘were and remain unproven’. They will remain unproven, because they are false.
“The evidence from The Sunday Times states that it did not publish the allegations themselves since ‘none of the three people who made the allegations against us was ever likely to be willing to appear as a witness’. In fact, the newspaper could easily have published the allegations had they thought that it could be shown that it was responsible and in the public interest to do so.
“In the event, they plainly concluded that the accounts of these people were not a reliable basis to publish these allegations. Indeed, these accounts are evidently wholly unreliable.” In October, The Sunday Times published details of an undercover investigation that led to two of FIFA’s 24-man Executive Committee members – Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Tamarii of Tahiti – being suspended.
The inquiry also heard from the former head of England’s 2018 bid and ex-FA chief, Lord Triesman, who described the conduct of executive committee members Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Ricardo Teixeira and Worawi Makudi in the World Cup tender as “improper and unethical”, claiming that all had sought bribes in order to obtain their backing in the December 2 vote.
Triesman claimed that CONCACAF president Warner had asked for money for sports facilities and for purchasing the TV rights to the 2010 World Cup for Haiti, which was hit by an earthquake in January 2010. He stated: “Jack Warner was very concerned that after all his years he had nothing to consider his legacy.
“He proposed some school or academy should be built and a set of offices that would be his legacy to Trinidad & Tobago. Dave (Richards, Premier League chairman) said ‘you must be joking, that must be about £2.5m,’ and Warner nodded. He said the money could be channelled through him and he would ensure that it was appropriately spent.”
As had been reported last week, Triesman confirmed that CONMEBOL head Leoz had asked for a knighthood, adding: “Mr Leoz said that he believed an appropriate way of recognising his role in football was not through money, but through an honour. He thought a knighthood would be appropriate, and I told him that was completely impossible.”
Triesman then recalled a bizarre conversation he had with Teixeira in Qatar, when the Brazilian football chief claimed that the nation’s president had no power in such matters, and simply asked Triesman to “tell him what I had for him.”
The fourth allegation detailed pertained to the Thai ExCo member Makudi who, according to Triesman, wanted England to play a game with Thailand, insisting that the money from the TV rights for that game should go directly to him. Triesman said that “he believed that was critical to making the arrangement a success.”
In Zurich, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he would ask for evidence to support the claims and would forward any allegations to the FIFA ethics committee for investigation. “I cannot say they are all angels or they are all devils,” he said of the Executive Committee members. “We must have the evidence and then we will act immediately against all those (who) would be breach of the ethical code rules.”
