OH REALY. The chief executive of Qatar's 2022 bid team, Hassan Al-Thawadi, says there is no evidence for allegations against his country. Photograph: Afp/AFP/Getty Images The head of Qatar's winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup has hit back furiously at the allegations of corruption levelled against his bid, saying there is "not a shred of evidence" to support them. In an exclusive first newspaper interview since Fifa awarded Qatar the right to host the World Cup on December 2, Hassan al-Thawadi, the bid's chief executive, argued that the suspicion and allegations against the bid are fuelled partly by anti-Arab prejudice. "I do not believe these claims are being made out of racism," Thawadi said, speaking to the Guardian in Doha, the Qatari capital. "But I genuinely think that ignorance fed into prejudice and made it a more fertile ground for these rumours to take seed and grow. I do believe there is prejudice against the fact that we are a rich, Arab nation â yes, I think there is genuine prejudice there." Acknowledging that he was awarded a huge budget from Qatar's government to market and support the bid â although he adamantly refused to reveal its true figure â Thawadi insisted the bid was conducted cleanly. He said he had considered establishing an independent investigation, and was going to ask Lord Coe, whose reputation for integrity is high at Fifa, to chair it, but decided there was no reason why he should and it would be unworkable. "I said to Mike Lee [the English consultant to the Qatar and London 2012 Olympic bids] I wanted to approach Seb Coe to be chairman of that committee. But in the end, why do I have to prove my innocence when there is not a shred of evidence? Why should we have an investigation if no other country has one, even Russia, which won the 2018 World Cup by the same people on the same day after the same process?" Thawadi was critical of the House of Commons select committee for culture, media and sport for publishing with parliamentary privilege the most damaging accusation against Qatar, that three African Fifa executive committee members were paid $1.5m (£0.94m) to secure their votes. That allegation was supplied to the committee by the Sunday Times, which had not published it, saying it was based on information from "a whistleblower who had worked with the Qatar bid", and warning that the allegation was unproven. Without giving the bid any notice or inquiring about the story's validity, the select committee published it, allowing the allegation to be reported protected by parliamentary privilege. The select committee did then publish Qatar's response, saying the story had been "fabricated" by a former member of staff with "an axe to grind", but Thawadi believed it was an unfair use of parliamentary privilege to publish the allegation without any evidence supporting it. On Sunday the whistleblower retracted her story, publicly identifying herself as Phaedra Almajid, formerly the Qatar bid's international media specialist, who said she had done it to "hurt" the bid after she was removed from her job in March 2010. Thawadi and his team have been in close touch with her, and facilitated a conversation with the Guardian in which she retracted her story. Both she and Thawadi said the bid team did not threaten or pressure her or offer her any inducement. John Whittingdale, the chairman of the select committee, has defended the publication, saying the committee did so because Fifa would not investigate. However, at that point, the Sunday Times had not yet presented Fifa with the allegation. "I do feel absolute surprise and disappointment," Thawadi said. I understand and respect parliamentary privilege, but my country's reputation and my bid's reputation is being sullied, tarnished, because of these allegations." Thawadi said he was also "disappointed" by the statement revealed in a leaked email by Jérôme Valcke, Fifa's general-secretary, that Qatar "bought the World Cup". Thawadi said the bid had immediately sent Valcke a strong condemnatory letter reserving the right to sue him, and Valcke issued a clarification, saying he had been referring to Qatar's large budget, not alleging corruption. Thawadi, in a long interview and several further discussions, pleaded for Qatar's bid to be considered "on merit" and the value of hosting the World Cup in the Middle East. CONSIDERED ON MERIT,,,,,,,,,,,,SPEAK CASH/ BROWN ENVELOPES, NICE ONE BLATTER. ****IN THIEF.
report has revealed that letters signed by the deputy prime minister, Abdullah al-Attiyah, and sent to Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and a number of other major oil companies showed that the Qatar government demanded donations of up to $1.7 billion towards the cost of building a medical center in 2007. So guessing they are used to dodgy dealings. Population under 2m, And known as a country with one of the highest people trafficking record around. All a farce really..
Commachio, you know as I do the way they treat the Phillipinos and Thais, slaves is all to them , not allowed to publish what I think, would be branded as racist, but having lived there, worked there, I have my own oppinion, which , on here will keep to myself.
I know what you mean mate, it's one law for some and another for others........ But this whole world cup thing is a joke, all lined by money.
Yeah we didnt use binliners full of dosh, tried to play within `the spirit of the game`, dont recon I will be alive to watch, but shame for all decent folks.
Guess it's the only way Qater would ever make it to the world cup finals.........Buy it, make your players the laughing stock of the world...good plan Shiek Blatter.
Whats the betting [ although I doubt if I will live to see it ] that the host nation get through several rounds, just to keep the interest,,,,,,,,,, if any? then make a case for credability.
Only if they pay the top players at the time enough to change nationality.........There's a thought..buy the players to.
And a game of three halfs, what the **** is three halfs?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,one and a half, when I was at school. albeit not metric.
It's a total farce. I've spent over eight months in Qatar. In the summer it gets above 50 deg C. It's no exaggeration to say just sitting down takes some effort in that heat. As for playing Football? Nee way.
International football is irrelevant. If there were no football clubs there would be no football. It is as simple as that
Just wish the slimy little turd would wear a yashmak, then we wouldnt have to see the ugly ****ers face when hers on tv.
Thick skins the Swiss bastards, thats why they are neutral in every war, why Swiss bank accounts exist, why fathers lock their kids in secret cellars, for the incest angle, real upstanding folk, can I ask all of you folk out there, how many HAVE A SWISS MATE?
