By Andrew Warshaw
March 21 – The debate over staging the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been stoked again by hard-hitting remarks in the United States from MLS Commissioner Don Garber who championed the ability of his own country to take the job on.
Garber said any decision to switch the tournament from its traditional summer slot to winter because of the fearsome Gulf heat would be a “monumental disaster” for the game — and that the US could easily step in as replacement hosts.
In one of the biggest ever voting upsets in sport, the US were trounced by Qatar in the race to stage 2022 and there has been festering resentment, particularly in the US, ever since amid persistent but as yet unproven allegations of foul play.
Garber was attending the IMG World Congress of Sports when he was asked about this week’s report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph alleging that disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who resigned in 2011 amidst accusations of accepting bribes, was paid $1.2 million from a company controlled by Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam, once the most powerful man in Asian football.
Although the Telegraph claims were not linked to the 2022 ballot and were far more likely to have been related to the infamous cash-for-votes scandal to do with the 2011 FIFA presidential election that ultimately led to the downfall of both Warner and bin Hammam, Garber took the opportunity to weigh into the debate by suggesting the Telegraph revelations would add momentum to the case against Qatar.
“That now is going to get a lot more legs. If more comes out, who knows what happens. It’s very disappointing. It’s an unpleasant aspect of the global football business,” he was quoted as saying by Sports Business Journal.
“We certainly would be happy to host it here and have a lot of big stadiums that could turn it around and host on a very short notice,” he added. “But we’re going to be on the sidelines on this and hope that FIFA can resolve this in a way that’s good for the sport.”
Changing the World Cup dates in Qatar, said Garber, would seriously disrupt not only other US sports but also European league scheduling. “Their broadcast partners might have a problem with it going up against [NFL] football,” Garber said. “It affects all of us for many, many years.”
Garber’s on-the-record comments, whether deliberately or not, had an intriguing sense of timing, coming just as American lawyer Michael Garcia, FIFA’s leading corruption investigator, was quizzing members of the organisation’s top brass during their executive committee meeting in Zurich as part of his investigation into whether any 2018 and 2022 bidding rules were broken.
Garcia has been conspicuous by his silence in recent months as he conducts a FIFA-commissioned probe of both World Cups. But he turned up unannounced in Zurich to interview the 12 members still in office who voted back in December 2010, a move likely to be put to FIFA President Sepp Blatter by reporters at a scheduled post-exco press conference today.
As part of his brief, Garcia is travelling to all nine original candidates for 2018 and 2022 to speak with bid leaders but has not yet, apparently, visited Qatar. His report is due for completion before the end of this year but Qatari officials have strenuously denied any corruption and distanced themselves totally from this week’s Telegraph report.
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