By Andrew Warshaw
December 1 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter, has repeated there is no chance of moving the 2022 World Cup from Qatar amidst another swathe of allegations about alleged corruption over the bidding process for both 2022 and the 2018 tournament in Russia.
In defiant mood as he sought to offset one of the deepest crises of his 16-year tenure, Blatter received prolonged applause from delegates attending the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) with a typically timely dig at western governments and media organisations who have been pouring scorn on FIFA under his presidency.
“2022, it is Qatar, and ladies and gentleman, believe me, with all that has been said around the world by whom? Those not involved with what happens in football. The World Cup in 2022 will be played in Qatar,” Blatter told AFC members.
His remarks came amid deepening confusion surrounding FIFA’s in-house probe into the bidding process with ethics investigator Michael Garcia still apparently appealing over the published 42-page precis of his 430-page report which he says misrepresents his own findings.
They also co-incided with more claims by the Sunday Times that illegal vote-buying took place during the bid process, the paper this time questioning not only hosting rights being handed to Russia and Qatar but also the behind-the-scenes conduct of vanquished 2018 contenders England.
The paper said England’s bid team had compiled a secret database which apparently details an intelligence-gathering operation against rival nations, in particular Russia. No clear evidence was supplied by the paper, though it gives an intriguing account of how FIFA’s rules for bidding nations were wrongly exploited (or at least perceived to be). The paper said that its sources close to the English bid said “its database on rival bids included unproven allegations”.
The paper, which said it based its information on interviews with seven different sources, claims the dossier cites Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as playing a major role in his country’s winning bid while there are also allegations about how Qatar’s natural gas industry helped it secure votes through trade deals.
But it also claims that England exploited the rules by “striking a secret vote-swapping pact” in the joint ballot with 2022 contenders South Korea. Ultimately, the engineered deal collapsed when South Korea allegedly reneged on the arrangement and voted instead for Russia.
The Sunday Times said it had submitted the allegations contained in the database to the British Parliament whose chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, John Whittingdale, said the file needed to be investigated.
“Today we have published the latest evidence (the Sunday Times) have given to us which does suggest that the (Football Association) themselves compiled a very substantial amount of information suggesting corrupt practices in the process,” he told Sky. “Also suggesting that England was involved in some kind of collusion as well during that process. These are questions that need to be answered.”
The Football Association said in a statement: “The FIFA Ethics Committee made specific requests and responding to these requests involved searching in excess of 500,000 documents. The search parameters were established with Mr Garcia’s office. The documents searched included intelligence gathered by the bid team. All documents within the search parameters were disclosed. In addition (former England bid chief) Andy Anson has confirmed that any intelligence that he believed could be substantiated was shared with Mr Garcia in his interview and that everything else was hearsay, gossip and rumour.”
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