By David Gold at Westminster in London
May 10 – FIFA vice-president and International Olympic Committee member Issa Hayatou has been accused, along with fellow FIFA Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, of taking a bribe of $1.5 million (£923,000) from Qatar in the bidding process for the 2022 World Cup.
Hayatou has been accused of wrong-doing before, having been in the dock over allegations made by the BBC’s Panorama programme last November that he took a 10,000 Franc bribe from a now defunct company, ISL, in 1995.
But these latest allegations, revealed by Conservative MP Damian Collins, are of a more serious nature.
Collins said at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee looking into England’s failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup: “The Sunday Times’ submission claims that $1.5 million (£923,000) was paid to Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma.
“They went on to vote for Qatar.”
Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup after beating the United States in the final round of voting, and Mike Lee, who was a bid advisor to the Qatari bid team, was present to give evidence to the Committee.
Lee insisted that he knew nothing of any improper behaviour on the part of the Qatari team, but was pressed by the Committee on whether it was possible for him to have been unaware of such practise.
“I was working at the highest level of that bid and am not aware of this,” he told them.
“I would have had a sense if such things were going on.”
Hayatou is believed to have been the sole FIFA Executive Committee member to have voted for England’s failed 2018 bid.
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