By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – Three years after winning the bid to stage the 2022 World Cup by a landslide vote, Qatar’s organising chief is back on the offensive, rebuffing any suggestion that the Gulf state was guilty of any impropriety. Hassan Al-Thawadi, Secretary General, Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, insists Qatar complied with FIFA regulations and that allegations to the contrary have “absolutely no basis”.
FIFA’s main corruption investigator, Michael Garcia, has been conspicuous by his silence in recent weeks with no indication as to how many of the bidders for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups have so far been visited as part of his supposed ongoing tour of all nine candidates.
But whenever Garcia comes to Qatar, says al-Thawadi, he won’t uncover any wrongdoing.
“Our bid team had to build credibility, showcase Qatar and deliver the messages,” said al-Thawadi at the Doha Goals conference in the Qatari capital. “We worked very hard and were at every major event in the build-up to winning the right to host the tournament.”
“Why did we win it? Without wanting to sound arrogant, it was because we had the best bid in terms of messages. We offered a compact World Cup with no long distance travel involved; we offered the perfect geographic location that allows three billion prime time TV viewers; and we offered a concept of modular stadia.”
Al-Thawadi has already gone on record as admitting that Qatar’s controversial kafala employment system, which ties employees to employers and gives the former scant working rights, needs amending and would be. But, he said, some of the criticism of Qatar had been excessive.
“The focus is on Qatar nine years ahead, and it is much more intense and in certain areas much more vicious,” he was quoted as saying.
“But any other nation that has hosted a major tournament has faced the same kind of criticism, the same kind of doubts and scepticism. Because of that, you learn one thing. You will hear the doubters, you will hear people talking to you, you will hear people telling you, ‘No you can’t’, and ‘Why should you?’, or ‘Why did you?’ The point is you shouldn’t be diverted by a lot of these questions.”
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