TODAY’S TALKER

Report says Qatar spied on Swiss prosecutor, FIFA boss meeting

A spying operation on behalf of World Cup host Qatar bugged a 2017 hotel meeting between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Switzerland’s then-attorney general during an investigation of soccer officials, Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported Sunday.

The report said intelligence operatives linked to a former CIA officer wiretapped a meeting involving Infantino and Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber at a Qatari-owned hotel in Bern, which also then housed the emirate’s embassy. The NZZ report said documents and sources showed the surveillance was carried out for “Project Matterhorn” — named for the iconic Swiss mountain — to gather material on Lauber.

At the time the prosecutor was overseeing a yearslong probe of soccer officials that had begun in 2014 to look for suspected financial wrongdoing linked to World Cup bidders, including Qatar’s winning campaign to host the 2022 tournament.

Sunday’s NZZ article added to reporting by The Associated Press since 2021 that Qatar spent millions over several years hiring the Global Risk Advisors agency to spy on FIFA and international soccer officials to protect its World Cup. After Qatar won the FIFA hosting vote in 2010, its World Cup project variously seemed at risk because of the extreme desert heat, allegations of corruption in the bid, reports of human rights and migrant labor abuses, and the economic and logistical boycott by neighboring states. Last year, the AP reported the FBI was investigating whether agency boss Kevin Chalker’s work for Qatar broke laws related to foreign lobbying and surveillance.