Qatar 2022 World Cup bid team accused of plotting against rivals

SEVERAL members of Fifa’s ruling council have called on the football body’s ethics committee to demand the evidence behind allegations that the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid ran a secret campaign to sabotage their rivals for the tournament.

The Sunday Times reported yesterday that it had been passed documents by a whistleblower who worked with the Qatar bid. It reported claims that the bid team used a PR agency and former CIA operatives to disseminate fake propaganda about its main competi- tors, the United States and Australia.

That would be a flagrant breach of rules set down for bidding countries by football’s world governing body.

Eight years ago, Qatar beat rival bids from the US, Australia, South Korea and Japan to host the 2022 competition, and has faced questions over its unexpected win ever since.

According to The Sunday Times, the smear campaign included paying a professor £6,900 to write a damning report on the economic cost of a United States World Cup.

It said that journalists, bloggers and high-profile figures were recruited in each country to build concerns over their respective bids – while grassroots protests were organised at rugby games in Australia.

The Telegraph contacted members of Fifa’s ruling council for comment on yesterday’s story.

Several said Fifa’s governing body or its ethics committee should ask to see evidence of the newspaper’s claims, amid calls in Westminster for an “independent investigation” into the claims.

The officials, none of whom wished to be identified, predicted that the latest allegations would not lead to Qatar being stripped of the World Cup, but it has placed renewed focus on the lengths the wealthy Gulf state went to in its efforts to secure the competition.

Fifa rules say bidders must “refrain from making any written or oral statements of any kind, whether adverse or otherwise, about the bids or candidatures of any other member association which has expressed an interest in hosting and staging the competitions”.

Qatar was previously investigated by Fifa over allegations of corruption surrounding the World Cup bid, but was cleared in 2014 following a two-year inquiry led by American lawyer Michael Garcia. It appears that the documents seen by The Sunday Times were unavailable during Fifa’s inquiry. Sport Page 8