November 10 – Qatar’s World Cup organisers have again strenuously denied claims by a former whistleblower that the country offered cash for votes in order to land the tournament.
A four-part Netflix docu-series named ‘FIFA Uncovered’ – released just a few days before the start of the most controversial World Cup in recent memory – includes a direct denial by organising chief Hassan Al-Thawadi that there was any wrongdoing.
Whistleblower Phaedra Almajid has long claimed that during Qatar’s bid campaign in a hotel in Angola, she personally witnessed money being offered to three of the 24 voting FIFA members.
Almajid was there as part of the Qatar bid’s international media relations team but was fired soon afterwards.
“My reaction, especially on the Phaedra situation, it’s frustration,” Al-Thawadi, who was Qatar’s campaign chief ahead of the infamous 2010 ballot, told interviewers for the Netflix programme. “They are inherently false and there are facts on the ground that prove they are false.”
Nevertheless, the Netflix show heaps more negative publicity on World Cup organisers who have been buffeted by all manner of criticism, not just about alleged shenanigans in securing the finals but also about the country’s human rights record and treatment of migrant workers.
The alleged offers to three officials, all of them from Africa, followed a widely disseminated Sunday Times expose. The allegations implicated, and were denied by, then African football chief Issa Hayatou as well as one-time FIFA executive committee members Jacques Anouma and Amos Adamu.
The Netflix docu-series, focussing on the corruption that led to the FifaGate scandal and the FBI-led criminal indictment of a string of senior officials, features contributions from investigative journalists, lawyers, and former FIFA bigwigs including former president Sepp Blatter.
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