By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – FIFA have been quick to respond to a resolution tabled by a group of European politicians calling for a re-rerun of what they describe as the “illegal” bidding process for the 2022 World Cup which has been dogged by unsubstantiated corruption claims ever since Qatar won the vote by a landslide in December 2010.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted on the resolution based on a report by British Labour MP Michael Connarty.
Connarty’s report, entitled “the reform of football governance” claims that the original procedure was so “fundamentally undermined by illegality” that it should be re-run using fairer procedures though this would be complicated by the fact that the 2018 and 2022 ballots were taken at the same time.
PACE has no legal powers to force FIFA into action and in a statement FIFA re-iterated that Qatar had been cleared of any alleged wrongdoing and that there was therefore “no legal obligation for FIFA’s Executive Committee to revoke either or both of the decisions to award the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.”
Clearly irritated at what it said the report appeared to leave out, FIFA’s statement explained the procedures that led to Qatar being exonerated and added: “We regret to observe that these recent developments and decisions have either been omitted or inaccurately reflected in the draft PACE resolution.”
On the thorny subject of migrant workers’ rights in Qatar, FIFA insisted it was monitoring progress and that its aim was “to ensure that the health and safety of the migrant workers is addressed urgently to find a sustainable solution.”
“FIFA has taken a series of measures in this regard, in particular by encouraging and facilitating a dialogue between stakeholders from human rights organisations, political institutions, international organisations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and trade unions. None of these initiatives have been mentioned in the draft resolution.”
Meanwhile, FIFA’s head of security during the controversial race to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup says world football’s governing body should investigate fresh claims of a voting pact between Mohamed bin Hammam, Qatar’s former FIFA vice-president who was banned from football for life, and Ángel María Villar Llona who ran the joint Spanish-Portuguese bid.
Details of the alleged agreement are made in a new book, The Ugly Game, which chronicles the long-running probe by the Sunday Times newspaper into the awards of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.
The book claims there was collusion between Bin Hammam and Villar Llona to ensure that votes would be guaranteed for the respective Qatari and Spain/Portugal bids. Spain in the end lost out to Russia for 2018.
Four years ago, FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted publicly that the two bidding candidates had made an arrangement but stopped short of accusing either of breaking any rules, describing the apparent pact as “a nonsense” since Spain/Portugal failed to win.
FIFA’s executive committee has agreed to publish the infamous Michael Garcia report into the 2010 World Cup bidding, albeit in redacted form to protect confidentiality, once current ethics investigations and possible disciplinary action against individuals – including Villar Llona – have been concluded. This will not be until after next month’s FIFA presidential election, however.
Qatar 2022 has always insisted bin Hammam played no “official or unofficial” role in the bid and denied any wrongdoing.
But Eaton, who left FIFA in May 2012 to head up the sports integrity unit of the Qatari-based International Centre for Sport Security, charged: “If there is new evidence, whatever it shows and whoever it implicates, then FIFA needs to investigate it. That’s the proper thing to do. FIFA needs to remove the stain on its reputation that the lack of transparency has created.”
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