By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
September 10 – Organisers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar believe they will be exonerated in the 350-page report into possible corruption surrounding the ballot for the tournament which also covered the 2018 event in Russia.
Marketing and communications chief Nasser Al Khater (pictured) told delegates at the Soccerex Global Convention that the campaign team had “always been confident of our position in the way we carried ourselves during the bidding stage.”
After two years of work, New York lawyer Michael Garcia finally delivered his FIFA-commissioned but independent report last week to German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, head of FIFA’s Ethics adjudicatory chamber who will decide on any sanctions, expected in November.
Eckert and his team will decide whether the report will be made public which a growing number of senior FIFA executives believe should be the case.
Allegations of corruption have swirled the voting procedure ever since the December 2010 vote but Qatar have always maintained their bid was clean.
The issue of whether to stage the event in summer or winter is rumbling on and Al Khater said opinion was split. “There is obviously some resistence to break away from tradition (of summer),” he said.
“As long as the international football community has a consensus, we will be ready. The only thing stipulated in the contract is that the World Cup has to be played in 2022. It can either be January-February at the beginning or November-December at the end. Or the current date which is June-July.”
Then there is the ongoing issue of workers’ rights.
“We are not running away from the problems. There are significant challenges when it comes to issues of workers’ rights and we’ve always said the World Cup will be a catalyst for change in our society. All this will take time. It’s not something you can change overnight. But we will see significant progress.”
He insisted fears about players’ and supporters’ health due to the heat would not be an issue because of the sophisticated cooling techniques being put in place, and admitted he was still surprised by the sustained media attacks on Qatar’s suitability as hosts.
“We’ve always known, because we were awarded the World Cup 12 years ahead, something of what we were going to have to withstand. We have certainly become wiser in politics and social issues but the level of scrutiny and degree of criticism I did not expect. But sometimes that’s a motivation. There is a lot of passion for the game in the Arab world. This World Cup needs to come to the Middle East. The time is right.”
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