By Andrew Warshaw
December 14 – The failed joint 2018 World Cup bid by Belgium and Holland, hitherto untouched by the corruption allegations that have struck at the heart of FIFA and its related confederations, has suddenly become unwittingly embroiled in the saga.
According to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, bid organisers allegedly paid a lobbyist closely linked to disgraced former former FIFA vice-president Mohamed bin Hammam to help garner votes.
Based on documents De Volkskrant says it has in its possession, Amadou Diallo was paid at least €10,000 in 2009, the year before the ballot, for his services.
“Diallo at the time was bin Hamman’s right-hand man. The payment therefore transgressed FIFA’s code of conduct,” the paper said.
Bin Hammam was suspended by FIFA in 2011 over the infamous Caribbean cash-for-votes scandal, then banned for life for financial misconduct while president of the Asian Football Confederation.
A bid team statement denied the payment was related to vote-buying. “He received compensation for his travel costs and work done lobbying,” a spokesman was quoted as saying. “The KNVB and the Belgian Football Federation (KBVB) have previously cooperated with FIFA’s ethics commission in regards to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (and) emerged without blemish.”
Diallo worked for many years with FIFA’s Goal Bureau, the body charged with distributing development funds and which at one stage was headed by Bin Hammam
The Dutch FA said it would launch an immediate investigation.
“The KNVB has taken note of the reports in De Volkskrant ….about the process surrounding the World Cup bid from Netherlands and Belgium,” read a statement. “In the context of due diligence, the Dutch FA has launched an investigation in which all documents pertaining to the procedure of the World Cup bid will be scrutinized.”
Harry Been, former KNVB general secretary, added: “I cannot remember that we in the World Cup campaign bid for 2018 allowed anything inappropriate to pass by.
“I obviously take questions from this newspaper and the investigation seriously. Files from that time will be removed and studied as quickly as possible and evaluated. We will then notify the result to the outside world.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734867419labto1734867419ofdlr1734867419owedi1734867419sni@w1734867419ahsra1734867419w.wer1734867419dna1734867419