Allegations of corruption and bribery related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup
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There have been allegations of bribery or corruption in the 2022 FIFA World Cup selection process involving members of the FIFA Executive Committee. There have been numerous allegations of bribery between the Qatar bid committee and FIFA members and executives, some of whom—including Theo Zwanziger and Sepp Blatter—were later recorded regretting awarding Qatar the tournament.[1][2][3][4]
2011
In May 2011, allegations of corruption within the FIFA senior officials raised questions over the legitimacy of the World Cup being held in Qatar. According to then vice-president Jack Warner, an email has been publicised about the possibility that Qatar 'bought' the 2022 World Cup through bribery via Mohammed bin Hammam who was president of the Asian Football Confederation at the time. Qatar's officials in the bid team for 2022 have denied any wrongdoing.[5] A whistleblower, revealed to be Phaedra Almajid, alleged that several African officials were paid $1.5m by Qatar.[6] She later retracted her claims of bribery, stating she had fabricated them in order to exact revenge on the Qatari bid team for relieving her of her job with them. She also denied being put under any pressure to make her retraction. FIFA confirmed receiving an email from her which stated her retraction.[7][8]
2014–15
In March 2014, it was alleged that a firm linked to Qatar's successful campaign paid committee member Jack Warner and his family almost $2 million. The Daily Telegraph reported that it understands that the U.S. FBI is investigating Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid.[9]
On 1 June 2014, The Sunday Times claimed to have obtained documents including e-mails, letters and bank transfers which allegedly proved that Bin Hammam had paid more than 5 million US dollars to Football officials to support the Qatar bid. Bin Hamman and all those accused of accepting bribes denied the charges.[10]
Later in June 2014, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker gave an interview to German media in June 2014 stating that the allegations are being driven by envy and mistrust by parties who do not want the World Cup staged in Qatar, and that the country is not getting the respect it deserves over its efforts to hold the World Cup. He reiterated that the Qatari Emir strictly punishes and forbids instances of corruption and bribery with a zero-tolerance policy.[11]
In an interview published on 7 June 2015, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's Audit and Compliance Committee, stated that "should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled".[12][13]
Qatar faced growing pressure over its hosting of the World Cup in relation to allegations over the role of former top football official Mohammed bin Hammam played in securing the bid.[14] A former employee of the Qatar bid team alleged that several African officials were paid $1.5 million by Qatar.[15] She retracted her claims, but later said that she was coerced to do so by Qatari bid officials.[16][17] In March 2014, it was discovered that disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner and his family were paid almost $2 million from a firm linked to Qatar's successful campaign. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid.[18]
The Sunday Times published bribery allegations based on a leak of millions of secret documents.[19] Five of FIFA's six primary sponsors, Sony, Adidas, Visa, Hyundai, and Coca-Cola, called upon FIFA to investigate the claims.[20][21] Jim Boyce, vice-president of FIFA, stated he would support a re-vote to find a new host if the corruption allegations are proven.[22][23] FIFA completed a lengthy investigation into these allegations and a report cleared Qatar of any wrongdoing. Despite the claims, the Qataris insisted that the corruption allegations were being driven by envy and mistrust while Sepp Blatter said it was fueled by racism in the British media.[24][25]
In the 2015 FIFA corruption case, Swiss officials, operating under information from the United States Department of Justice, arrested many senior FIFA officials in Zürich, Switzerland and seized physical and electronic records from FIFA's main headquarters. The arrests continued in the United States, where several FIFA officers were arrested, and FIFA buildings were raided. The arrests were made on the information of at least a $150 million (USD) corruption and bribery scandal.[26][needs update]
On 7 June 2015, Phaedra Almajid, the former media officer for the Qatar bid team, claimed that the allegations would result in Qatar not hosting the World Cup.[27] In an interview published on the same day, Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA's Audit and Compliance Committee, stated that "should there be evidence that the awards to Qatar and Russia came only because of bought votes, then the awards could be cancelled."[28][29][needs update]
FIFA ethics investigation report
In 2014, FIFA appointed Michael Garcia as its independent ethics investigator to look into bribery allegations against Russia and Qatar, the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup respectively. Garcia investigated all nine bids and eleven countries involved in the 2018 and 2022 bids and spoke to all persons connected to the bids and appealed for witnesses to come forward with evidence.[30] At the end of investigation, Garcia submitted a 430-page report in September 2015. FIFA governing body then appointed a German judge Hans Joachim Eckert who reviewed and presented a 42-page summary of the report two months later. The report cleared Qatar and Russia of bribery allegations stating that Qatar "pulled Aspire into the orbit of the bid in significant ways" but did not "compromise the integrity" of the overall bid process.[31]
Michael Garcia reacted almost immediately stating that the report is “materially incomplete” and with “erroneous representations of the facts and conclusions".[31] In 2017, a German journalist Peter Rossberg who claimed to have obtained the report wrote in a Facebook post that the report "does not provide the proof that the 2018 or 2022 World Cup was bought" and stated that he would publish the full report bit by bit. This forced FIFA to release the original report as authored by the investigator Michael Garcia. The full report did not provide any evidence of corruption against the host of 2022 World Cup but stated that bidders tested rules of conduct to the limit.[32] The report ended talks of a re-vote.
2020
In January, Bonita Mersiades, a whistle-blower from inside Australia's 2022 World Cup bid published a book alleging that leading up to the December 2010 vote, executives with FIFA had been privately worried about a financial shortfall for 2022 if Qatar was chosen, when Al Jazeera (now beIN Sports) agreed a secret deal to pay $100 million in the event that Qatar would host. According to the book, the deal involved Jérôme Valcke, secretary general of FIFA at the time; Valcke was later banned from football for nine years due to corruption. When The Mail on Sunday asked beIN Sports about the allegations, a spokesman described the payment as "production contributions" which were "standard market practice and are often imposed upon broadcasters by sports federations and sports rights holders".[33]
According to leaked documents obtained by The Sunday Times, Qatari state-run television channel Al Jazeera secretly offered $400 million to FIFA, for broadcasting rights, just 21 days before FIFA announced that Qatar would hold the 2022 World Cup. The contract also documented a secret TV deal between FIFA and Qatar's state-run media broadcaster Al Jazeera that $100 million would also be paid into a designated FIFA account only if Qatar was selected in the World Cup ballot in 2010. A further $480 million was offered by the State of Qatar government, three years after the initial offer, bringing the total amount offered by Qatar to $880 million. The documents were handed over to Swiss Police as part of their bribery inquiry.[34][35]
FIFA refused to comment on the inquiry and responded to The Sunday Times in an email and wrote "allegations linked to the FIFA World Cup 2022 bid have already been extensively commented by FIFA, who in June 2017 published the Garcia report in full on Fifa.com. Furthermore, please note that Fifa lodged a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, which is still pending. FIFA is and will continue to cooperate with the authorities."[33][34] A beIN spokesman said in a statement that the company would not "respond to unsubstantiated or wildly speculative allegations."[36]
Damian Collins, a British Member of Parliament (MP) and chairman of a UK parliamentary committee, called for payments from Al Jazeera to be frozen and launched an investigation into the apparent contract since the contract "appears to be in clear breach of the rules".[33]
Former UEFA president Michel Platini was arrested by French police on 18 June 2019 in relation to the rewarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. He was detained at the Anti-Corruption Office of the Judicial Police outside Paris. The arrest represents the first substantial public move in an investigation into the Qatar decision opened two years ago by France's Parquet National Financier, which is responsible for law enforcement against serious financial crime.[37][38]
See also
References
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- ^ "Sepp Blatter: Awarding Qatar World Cup may have been 'mistake'". Sports Illustrated. 9 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
- ^ "Sepp Blatter: awarding 2022 World Cup to Qatar was a mistake | Football". The Guardian. 16 May 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ^ "Sepp Blatter admits summer World Cup in Qatar mistake - CBC Sports - Soccer". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ "Valcke denies 2022 'bought' claim". BBC News. 30 May 2011. Archived from the original on 30 May 2011.
- ^ "Sorry Soccer". Sports Illustrated. 23 May 2011. p. 16.
- ^ "FIFA tight-lipped over whistleblower". Al Jazeera. 11 July 2011. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Qatar World Cup whistleblower retracts her claims of Fifa bribes". The Guardian. 10 July 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ Watt, Holly (18 March 2014). "World Cup 2022 investigation: demands to strip Qatar of World Cup". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
- ^ Bond, David (6 January 2014). "'£3m payments to officials' corruption claim". BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ "Terms of trade union are killing Lufthansa". Handelsblatt. 30 June 2014. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ "'Russia & Qatar may lose World Cups' - Fifa official". BBC News. 7 June 2015.
- ^ Owen Gibson (7 June 2015). "Russia and Qatar may lose World Cups if evidence of bribery is found". The Guardian.
- ^ "Fresh corruption claims over Qatar World Cup bid". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 June 2014. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
- ^ "Sorry Soccer". Sports Illustrated. 23 May 2011. p. 16. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ "FIFA tight-lipped over whistleblower". Al Jazeera. 11 July 2011. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Qatar World Cup whistleblower retracts her claims of Fifa bribes". The Guardian. 10 July 2011. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
- ^ Watt, Holly (18 March 2014). "World Cup 2022 investigation: demands to strip Qatar of World Cup". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
- ^ "Plot to buy the World Cup". The Sunday Times. 1 June 2014. Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
- ^ "Qatar 2022: Fifa sponsor demands 'appropriate investigation'". BBC Sport. 8 June 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ Blitz, Roger (8 June 2014). "Big sponsors pile pressure on Fifa over Qatar World Cup". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
- ^ Conway, Richard (5 June 2014). "BBC Sport – World Cup 2022: Qatari officials consider legal action". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
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- ^ "BBC Sport – Qatar 2022: Sepp Blatter says corruption claims are racist". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ Gibson, Owen (9 June 2014). "Sepp Blatter launches broadside against the 'racist' British media". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
- ^ "FIFA Officials Arrested Over Alleged 'Rampant, Systematic' $150M Bribery Scheme". ABC News. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
- ^ Withnall, Adam (7 June 2014). "Fifa corruption whistleblower says Qatar will be stripped of 2022 World Cup". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
- ^ "'Russia & Qatar may lose World Cups' – Fifa official". BBC News. 7 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 August 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
- ^ Gibson, Owen (7 June 2015). "Russia and Qatar may lose World Cups if evidence of bribery is found". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
- ^ "Qatar cleared but England criticised". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b "Fifa corruption report - what now?". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ Associated Press (2017-06-28). "FIFA releases report detailing alleged corruption in World Cup bids of Russia and Qatar". Los Angeles Times. The Associated Press is an independent not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City. Retrieved 2022-09-17.
- ^ a b c Ingle, Sean (10 March 2019). "Fifa facing urgent calls to investigate Qatar World Cup bid claims". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
- ^ a b "QATAR OFFERED FIFA $880 MILLION FOR HOSTING THE 2022 WORLD CUP - REPORT". The Jerusalem Post. 10 March 2019.
- ^ "Exclusive investigation: Qatar's secret $880m World Cup payments to Fifa". The Sunday Times. 10 March 2019.
- ^ "Qatar promised Fifa $100m if it won World Cup hosting rights". The National. 10 March 2019.
- ^ "Former UEFA president Platini arrested in 2022 Qatar World Cup probe". ABC News. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
- ^ Conn, David. "Michel Platini arrested in Qatar World Cup investigation". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 June 2019.