By Andrew Warshaw
October 8 – The head of the Asian football federation has hinted that the most deserving candidate may not necessarily win the race to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Mohamed Bin Hammam (pictured) of Qatar said the countries with the best marketing campaign may triumph rather than the best bid.
“Whether the best candidates for 2018 and 2022 are going win or not I’m not 100 per cent sure because this depends more on public relations and how as a marketing person you sell your product,” he told the Leaders in Football Conference in London.
“I will be naturally looking to the interests of Qatar because that is the bid for me,” he said.
“All the bidders are telling ‘okay if you vote for me I will vote for you‘.
Although FIFA rules forbid candidates from doing deals, behind-the-scenes, horsetrading has long been considered de rigueur and Bin Hammam’s comments, unwittingly or not, have served to fuel the debate by him going public.
Admitting he would have preferred the two World Cup votes to have been held separately rather than being banded together on December 2, Bin Hammam added: “There is a lack of clear written criteria.
“All the nine candidates today have their strong points and their weak points and you have to make a judgement yourself.
“That must not be surprising to anybody.
“We, the four members from the AFC, have decided we would like to see 2022 in Asia and we are very frank about that.
“I’m talking about myself as a Qatari voter, I’m not talking about other committee members.”
While not pointing the finger at any particular rival, Bin Hammam’s remarks came as a surprise to other contenders, who stressed there were a number of specific criteria that had to be signed off before being awarded the World Cup.
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