By David Gold at Westminster in London
May 10 – Mike Lee, an advisor to Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bidding team, accused England’s 2018 World Cup bid of arrogance as he gave evidence at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
“You get the votes you deserve at the end of the day,” said Lee when asked whether he felt England, who were knocked out in the first round of voting for the World Cup, deserved more than two votes during the bidding process.
“The tone of the bid sounded very arrogant, saying we have the best this, the best that, the best fans…tell that to the Argentinians or Brazilians.
“At times we sounded like little Englanders.
“We don’t know when we’re being arrogant, particularly when talking about sport.”
Lee also pointed out that Britain’s domination of the International Football Association Board, which consists of the four home nations – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – and on which FIFA has four votes, meant that England’s lecturing about transparency and openness appeared hypocritical.
“We have four members of the International Football Association Board and a guaranteed vice-presidency.
“What can we be doing with these?
“They are causing resentment, some think why have the Brits got that?
“When we lecture about democracy, they do raise these points.”
Lee defended Qatar from allegations of bribery amid evidence put forward by Conservative MP Damian Collins from a submission by the Sunday Times, which suggested that two FIFA Executive Committee members, Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma, received $1.5 million (£909,000) each from the Qatari bid team.
“In all the time I’ve worked with the Qatari bid I’ve never seen any improper offer being made,” he said.
“I was working at the highest level of that bid and am not aware of that, I would have had a sense if such things were going on.
“If you can construct legacies in other parts of the world that is legitimate.”
Lee was also probed on Qatar’s controversial and ambitious plan to use air-conditioning to keep temperatures at reasonable levels during the World Cup, in a country where temperatures can reach 50 degrees celcius in the summer.
“The technology does work, I’ve seen it personally, there is already an air conditioned stadium working well in Doha.
“At the end of the campaign we showed air cooling could work in stadiums, fan zones and training camps.
“Qatar is confident it can host a winter World Cup.”
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