Fifa under pressure over Qatar World Cup claims of foul play
▶ Sepp Blatter, the former Fifa boss, claims former French leader Sarkozy swung votes
Fifa was scrambling to hold the line over Qatar’s 2022 World Cup yesterday as politicians and sport administrators called on the governing body to reopen investigations into dirty tricks allegations.
Legal pressure on the Swissbased organisation centres on the need to revive the two-year inquiry that cleared Qatar of corruption allegations during the bidding for the tournament. It released the results of the inquiry, led by the American lawyer Michael Garcia, in June last year.
It is unclear if the evidence of an operation to produce negative propaganda about rivals, reported by The Sunday Times, was presented to Mr Garcia.
Officials said the new allegations were serious enough to strip Qatar of the host rights.
“Absolutely they could switch this,” Mark Palios, the former Football Association chief executive, told the BBC.
Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former Fifa president, added to its woes by tweeting that the use of a “black-ops” campaign was not the only serious allegation facing the 2022 bid.
“Bad news: Qatar accused of denigration of other bidders. Fact is Qatar won after an intervention by the former French President Sarkozy to Fifa vice president Platini,” he tweeted.
Criminal investigations into corruption in Fifa by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations have so far treated the organisation as a victim of its own officials under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act.
However lawyers believe a failure to pursue the claims by the whistleblower, who has exposed the campaign orchestrated by the company Brown Lloyd Jones, could flip the legal view of Fifa into conspirator.
Nasser Al Khelaifi, the Qatari president of Paris Saint-Germain and head of BeIN sports, was last year named in a US court as the potential buyer of an Argentina company at the centre of bribery allegations paid under the code “Q2022”, a reference to Qatar’s 2022 bid.
Pressure is building on Fifa to strip Qatar of the 2022 World Cup and maybe give it to England.
Claims that Doha sought to sabotage rival bids came as the former Fifa president Sepp Blatter yesterday pressured the organisation to re-examine the role played by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to swing the selection process in Doha’s favour.
The Football Association was forced to respond to the growing chorus of speculation from within football and in the media. A spokesman said it would not comment on the role England would play if the host nation for the 2022 World Cup was changed.
Lord Triesman, leader of England’s 2018 World Cup bid, led calls for Fifa to take the tournament away from Doha.
“If Qatar is shown to have broken the Fifa rules, then they can’t hold on to the World Cup,” he said. “I think it would not be wrong for Fifa to reconsider England in those circumstances.
“Fifa’s obligation is to look at the evidence thoroughly and rapidly and have the courage to take what may be a difficult decision.”
Allegations that Qatar paid major PR firm BLJ Worldwide – the firm that worked for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s wife Asma – and former CIA operatives to spread propaganda about rival bidders have ignited concern over how the tournament was awarded.
Former FA chief executive, Mark Palios, said that even if Qatar were not stripped of the World Cup, they could still be banned from international football after 2022.
The FA’s former chairman, David Bernstein, said the British government had already spoken to the whistleblower who leaked the Qatari interventions.
“This was always a strange affair. This was always regarded as very odd, probably the oddest event of its sort in the history of football, the history of sport,” Mr Bernstein told Sky News.
He said Damian Collins, chairman of parliament’s digital, culture, media and sports committee, was taking it “very seriously”.
“These are serious matters and there needs to be a proper independent investigation of them,” Mr Collins said.
After years of corruption claims and falling public confidence, this is an “opportunity to demonstrate that Fifa takes these issues much more seriously than it has done”, he said.
Amid the furore surrounding reports that Qatar had spread “poison” to weaken rival hosts, Mr Blatter, accused of corruption and financial mismanagement before his resignation, stepped in.
“Bad news: Qatar accused of denigration of other bidders. Fact is Qatar won after a political intervention by the former French president Sarkozy to Fifa vice president Michel Pla-
tini,” Mr Blatter said. In the book My Truth, published in May, Mr Blatter said Mr Sarkozy told European football chief Michel Platini to vote for Qatar in 2010 as Doha curried favour to sway votes. It followed a private French lunch with the Qatari emir.
“[Platini] phoned me immediately. He could not say no to President Sarkozy considering the interests of France,” Mr Blatter wrote.
“I do not know and I do not want to know if there is a connection between the Qatar World Cup and what happened next – namely, the sale by France of military and civilian aircraft in Qatar for $14.6 billion.
“Six months later, the purchase of Paris Saint-Germain by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011 for €76 million.”
Qatar has since ploughed vast sums to propel PSG to the summits of French football.
It was under Mr Blatter’s leadership that Fifa’s corruption truly emerged and Mr Bernstein said the Qatar ordeal would be an “acid test”.
“The key issue now is what will Fifa do,” he said. “The Fifa of five years ago is meant to be very different from the reformed Fifa we have now.
“Now is the moment of truth to see if this new Fifa with a new governing board will react any different to allegations that have happened previously.”
But Mr Palios played down claims Qatar could be stripped of the World Cup and said that the country could sue Fifa if action were taken against it.
“I think Fifa are broadly out of time, practically, to do anything in terms of taking away the 2022 World Cup,” he said. “I’d be very surprised if they did this.
“There is a series of steps that need to be taken [by Fifa]. The first thing, and the key thing, is get an early initial view on the provenance of the information – you know, the source of the information, is it valid, etc.”
Queries would be raised as to why investigations into impropriety by Qatar in 2012, known as the Garcia Report, did not throw up the allegations made over the weekend, Mr Palios said.
“They have to face the question, almost certainly, of legal action from Qatar and put that in the balance,” he told the BBC.
“They have to put a contingency plan together.
“When you pull all this together I suspect it may not mean they will take the World Cup away from Qatar but what they certainly would have to do is look at sanctions. This could include banning Qatar from football post-2022.”