A book recently came out titled The Ugly Game: The Qatari plot to by the World Cup by Heidi Blake & Jonathan Calvert, and here's an excerpt from a review in last month's WSC that sheds a lot of light on how things get done under Blatter. I'll warn you now, you may want to put down any cups of liquid before reading any further...
Blatter, who suddenly stepped down shortly after winning a fifth term in May's election, suggested in 2008 bringing the World Cup to Qatar. This was partly as a pay-back to (Mohamed) Bin Hammam for bankrolling the Swiss's first two presidential election campaigns. Bin Hammam, a construction billionaire and president of the Asian Football Confederation, then ran a two-year campaign of buying support for Qatar's bid. He paid more than $5 million (£3.2m) to the leaders of 30 African federations, helped arrange for Thailand to be supplied with cheap Qatari gas, and illicitly colluded with the Spain-Portugal 2018 bid to swap votes.
As soon as Qatar won the World Cup prize, however, Blatter tried to undermine it with talk of a revote. He knew that Qatar 2022 would be an unpopular commercial and sporting flop, and also felt threatened by Bin Hammam's success. The Qatari, to protect his prize, decided to run against Blatter in the 2011 FIFA presidential election - and again to buy the votes...
...And just when a reader thinks his jaw can drop no further, the book reveals Blatter's deal with Qatar's ruling family later than month to finally rid himself of his presidential rival. In return for Bin Hammam withdrawing from the election, FIFA's president would protect Qatar's right to stage the World Cup and the disciplinary case alleging bribery by the Qatari would be dropped. Bin Hammam agreed reluctantly - only for Blatter to renege on his promise over the disciplinary case, which ultimately led to a life ban from football. The book contains five sources verifying this deal.
