QATAR: Qatar was not seen as a serious contender by many to win the hosting rights due to various reasons, like the small size of the country and the soaring temperatures experienced in the Arabian Peninsula.
Qatar’s bidding committee persuaded Mohamed bin Hammam to back them. Mohamed bin Hammam, a Qatari national and the President of the Asian Football Confederation, was reluctant to bring the World Cup to Qatar since he felt the conditions there were not suitable for the physically draining game.
For Qatar to win the bidding process, they needed the support of the FIFA Executive Committee members. Mohamed bin Hammam was the key for the Qatar bidding committee to reach the electing members.
Ten months before the voting process, Hassan Al Thawadi, the Secretary-General for Qatar’s 2022 Bidding Committee, delivered a powerful speech to CAF in Luanda, the capital of Angola.
It was the turning point in Qatar’s contention for the World Cup bid. The executive members took note of Qatar as a serious candidate for a win in the upcoming elections.
The endless bribery inside FIFA
CAF’s three executive committee members were Issa Hayatou, Jacques Anouma, and Amos Adamu.
According to an anonymous Qatari whistleblower, Hassan Al Thawadi offered Hayatou $1 million in exchange for his vote. Hayatou turned down the initial offer but finalised a deal for $1.5 million.
Anouma and Adamu, the other two members, also accepted the same deal in exchange for their votes.
FIFA and Qatar denied the whistleblower’s claims. The whistle-blower, an ex-employee of Qatar’s Bidding Committee, was accused of falsely accusing her former employers, who had fired her.
There were further suspicions of insider dealings between Qatar and FIFA officials. The Thai and Qatari governments signed a massive gas deal shortly after Qatar’s declaration as the host for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The suspicion arose from the fact that there was a Thai representative among the voting executive committee members.
Everyone involved in the controversy vehemently denied any links between the incidents and asserted that the Thailand gas deal was not a favour in return for helping Qatar win.
Nine days before the vote, Michel Platini had lunch with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the son of the Emir of Qatar. Michel Platini, the President of UEFA, heavily influenced who the European representatives voted for in the elections.
Interestingly, soon after Qatar won the bidding, the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority bought majority stakes in the France-based Paris Saint-Germain football club.
A Qatar-based broadcaster, beIN TV, bought the television rights to the French football games for considerable money. Massive deals between Qatar and France, including Qatar buying many French Airbus airplanes, followed these deals.
The fallout between friends
Three months after the election, the relationship between Mohamed bin Hammam and Sepp Blatter turned sour. After the 1998 FIFA Presidency elections, Blatter allegedly promised that he would lead FIFA only for a couple of terms.
Even though the exact number of terms is unknown, it is safe to say that Blatter did not want to relinquish his role at the top of FIFA, and he backtracked from the promise he made.
Mohamed bin Hammam was involved in an electoral battle for the post of Chairman of the AFC in 2009. Mohamed bin Hammam was a loyal friend and supporter of Sepp Blatter. He shockingly found out that Blatter did not reciprocate his loyalty and friendship when Blatter voted in favour of his rival candidate.
On March 18, 2011, Mohammed bin Hammam announced his candidature for the post of FIFA President. The US denied Hammam a visa to attend the CONCACAF congress held in Miami on May 3, 2011, in the run-up to the polls.
According to Hammam, “someone” didn’t want him to visit the USA and the Caribbean nations, the central vote bank of FIFA.
Since he could not attend the congress, Mohamed bin Hammam requested that Jack Warner convene the meeting again. Warner agreed to Hammam’s request and set the meeting for Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
Chuck Blazer was wary of the new meeting and voiced his concerns to Warner, who promptly shut down his complaints.
On May 13, 2011, at the meeting held at the Hyatt Regency hotel, Jack Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam were caught attempting to bribe the CONCACAF members. Most members reportedly accepted the bribe, except for a few, who took photographs of the money received inside envelopes and reported the incident to Chuck Blazer along with the evidence.
Blazer’s friendship with Jack Warner turned sour after the World Cup hosts’ controversy. He turned on Jack Warner and reported the bribery attempt to Jerome Valcke, who, in turn, informed the Ethics Committee of FIFA.
Mohamed bin Hammam denied any ill-intention and said that the money he gave the members was strictly to support the Caribbean football associations.
The fresh bribery scandal reopened the allegations of wrongdoing in the 2022 World Cup bidding process. Sepp Blatter accused Mohamed bin Hammam of influencing the bidding. Blatter exploited the situation to the hilt to eliminate Hammam’s electoral chance, his main rival for the Presidency polls.
Also Read: FIFA Controversy Part 2: Sepp Blatter and the Political Drama of the 1990s
