Fifa is facing fresh allegations of corruption over its controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The Sunday Times has obtained millions of secret documents - emails, letters and bank transfers - which it alleges are proof that the disgraced Qatari football official Mohamed Bin Hammam made payments totalling US$5m (£3m) to football officials in return for their support for the Qatar bid. Qatar 2022 and Bin Hammam have always strenuously denied the former Fifa vice-president actively lobbied on their behalf in the run-up to the vote in December 2010. But, according to emails obtained by the Sunday Times and seen by the BBC, it is now clear that Bin Hammam, 65, was lobbying on his country's behalf at least a year before the decision. The documents also show how Bin Hammam was making payments direct to football officials in Africa to allegedly buy their support for Qatar in the contest. Qatar strongly deny any wrongdoing and insist that Bin Hammam never had any official role supporting the bid and always acted independently from the Qatar 2022 campaign. When approached by the Sunday Times to respond to their claims, Bin Hammam's son Hamad Al Abdulla declined to comment on his behalf. Although the vast majority of the officials did not have a vote, the Sunday Times alleges Bin Hammam's strategy was to win a groundswell of support for the Qatari bid which would then influence the four African Fifa executive committee members who were able to take part in the election. The Sunday Times also alleges that it has documents which prove Bin Hammam paid 305,000 Euros (£250,000) to cover the legal expenses of another former Fifa executive committee member from Oceania, Reynald Temarii. Temarii, from Tahiti, was unable to vote in the contest as he had already been suspended by Fifa after he was caught out by a Sunday Times sting asking bogus American bid officials for money in return for his support. But the paper now alleges that Bin Hammam provided him with financial assistance to allow him to appeal against the Fifa suspension, delaying his removal from the executive committee and blocking his deputy David Chung from voting in the 2022 election. The paper claims that had Chung been allowed to vote he would have supported Qatar's rivals Australia. Instead there was no representative from Oceania allowed to vote, a decision which may have influenced the outcome in Qatar's favour. The paper also makes fresh allegations about the relationship between Bin Hammam and his disgraced Fifa ally Jack Warner, from Trinidad. Although Warner was forced to resign as a Fifa vice-president in 2011, after it was proved he helped Bin Hammam bribe Caribbean football officials in return for their support in his bid to oust the long-standing Fifa president Sepp Blatter, the paper says it has evidence which shows more than $1.6m was paid by Bin Hammam to Warner, including $450,000 in the period before the vote. The new allegations will place Fifa under fresh pressure to re-run the vote for the 2022 World Cup, which was held in conjunction with the vote for the 2018 tournament, in which England were eliminated in the first round with just two votes. Fifa's chief investigator Michael Garcia is already conducting a long-running inquiry into allegations of corruption and wrongdoing during the 2018/22 decisions. He is due to meet senior officials from the Qatar 2022 organising committee in Oman on Monday. But that meeting may now have to be postponed in light of the Sunday Times revelations which have raised important new questions about the link between Bin Hammam and the successful Qatari World Cup campaign. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27652181
Although I have no doubt that corruption is the reason Qatar got the competition, there are 2 things which strike me as strange about this story - - 'millions of e mails' (which I have just heard repeated on the BBC) Really? MILLIONS???? Have you ever seen a million of anything? Its a lot. It would take a lot of people a long time to generate 'millions' of documents. - £3m in payments. What? Is that all? That's a pathetically small amount given the evident greed and venality of those being bribed and the wealth of the bribers. Just a thought.
Is there anyone out there who honestly believes Qatar were awarded the World Cup because it was the best bid? It's just another one of many corrupt decisions taken by a body that is a law unto itself. One day the main players in World football might just grow a pair and organise a rival tournament under a new organisation that isn't reliant on backhanders but don't hold your breath...
The main players in world football seem to be the TV companies, especially Sky, and Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Munich, Manchesters City & United, Chelsea, Arsenal. In the many pages wasted on this in The Sunday Times, they claim to have access to 'hundreds of millions' of documents. I wonder if they have read them all.
But wait, isnt that a conspiracy theory? I thought they never happened and anyone who doesnt believe the official explanation should wear a tin foil hat!
It would seem that there are 'hundreds of millions' of pages of evidence and 'reputable' journalists (i.e. they get paid for their work) are putting it forward. Bit different to the stuff put forward by blokes in dingy bedsits and zero pages of evidence. I see they haven't found that Malaysian plane yet. Any theories on that?
What a surprise there was corruption between African West Indian and Middle Eastern businessmen oh and sepp blatter was involved, well what do you know, poor old England only had hand bags to bribe officials wives
Presumably, the World Cup will now be moved to a venue that at least has a larger population than Birmingham. I won't hold my breath!!!
And hopefully a place where there isn't a serious risk of players dying. Everyone knew it happened, the same goes for Russia. Ive always thought we should try to reclaim our game, start up a new international governing body. At least they'd be useless rather than corrupt.
There was always something very dodgy about both the Russian and Qatar winning bids. Why did they do both votes at the same time?
FIFA in unbelievable âNo Money Changing Handsâ scandal! In an incredible revelation that will surely rock Footballâs governing body to its foundations, NOT606 News can exclusively reveal today that it has found no incriminating emails or documents relating to Englandâs successful 1966 World Cup bid. Despite an undercover investigation held over forty-eight years, it appears that the unthinkable was in fact true. The tournament, held in England in the year Austria famously won the Eurovision Song Contest and the two Madrid clubs shared domestic and European success, was awarded without resort to bribery, corruption, secret payments, or inducements of any kind. England Bid Leader 'Honest Alf' Ransey and his deputy, Wally Winterbottom, apparently offered such delights as the North East of England can provide, but these were seemingly refused by the sport's governing body's most trusted official. We have determined that FIFA vice-president Jack Warner did in fact holiday on a private island near his home in the Caribbean in the years immediately before the tournament, and did not â as had been suspected â spend two weeks at a caravan park in Bridlington. We have found nothing to suggest that he forewent his standard Moet et Chandon 1954 for the more exotic tipple, a pint of Mild and Bitter in a dimpled glass. And far from spending his days huddled in a Humberside bus shelter with a couple of fish-wives and some haddock and chips, there appears to have been no change to Warnerâs usual routine of scantily clad bikini models frolicking around the poolside under a clear blue sky. This lack of illegal inducements and bribery will shock the sport to its roots, and casts ever more doubt on the suitability of Warner for his senior role in FIFA, long established as a benchmark for sleaze and corruption. When asked for his opinion, current FIFA President Sepp Blatter said âJack will always do what you least expect. Just when we thought we all knew him, he goes and does something like this. Iâm deeply disappointed in the lad. In acting ethically and with no thought for personal gain, heâs betraying everything that defines FIFA as an organisationâ We understand an internal investigation has been launched.
so football is corrupt? in other news millions of documents are alleging that bears do in fact **** in the woods...
Mate, I think it is beyond surgery. A death certificate would be a better option then wait for the new body to arise and hope it is better.
In a follow up to our earlier story, the good name of bears has been tarnished by the revelation that Yogi has been using passing rabbits to wipe his arse.
