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Football is the biggest loser in Al Khelaifi scandal

The controversial decision to award the quadrennial extravaganza to a country with no football history had raised a lot of eyebrows when the decision was taken in 2010.

Nasser Al Khelaifi

Bengaluru, October 16: Ever since Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the tiny Gulf nation has been in the news for all wrong reasons.

The controversial decision to award the quadrennial extravaganza to a country with no football history had raised a lot of eyebrows when the decision was taken in 2010.

It did not take much time for the proverbial Pandora's Box to open. Bribery allegations emerged soon and Mohamed bin Hammam, former Asian Football Confedration (AFC) and Qatar Football Association chief, became the first casualty.

Bin Hammam, who was the mastermind of Qatar's successful bid, was banned from all football activities in 2012 over allegations of bribing voters to bring the tournament to Middle East for the first time.

Though Bin Hammam got a reprieve when the Court of Arbitration for Sport, overturned the ban, a second ban was slapped on him for conflict of interest which related to his position as AFC chief.

The chain of events did not end there. Ever since Qatar started working on the World Cup stadiums, issues of alleged mistreatment of migrant workers have surfaced and recently the Human Rights Watch asked the authorities to implement laws to protect them.

As if to add insult to injury came the June 6 decision of the Gulf neighbours to snap political and economic ties with Qatar over their alleged support to terrorist activities and it has had its effects in sports circles too.

The Gulf Cup of Nations, which Doha is set to host in December, looks a doubtful starter now and it has also cast a cloud over Qatar's participation in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup to be held in the UAE.

And the latest in the unending corruption saga came last week when Swiss authorities initiated a probe against wealthy Qatari businessman and Paris Saint-German president Nasser Al Khelafi.

Al Khelaifi wears different hats. In addition to heading the Ligue 1 football club, he is also the CEO of beIN media group and the president of Qatar Tennis Federation.

The Swiss attorney general's office has opened a criminal probe against Al Khelaifi in connection to the awarding of World Cup media rights for 2026 and 2030. FIFA later opened a probe related to the issue.

As if that was not enough, Al Khelaifi courted further trouble when Italian police said he had put a Sardinian villa at the disposal of former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke and had used the property as a means of corruption.

Though the prosecutors have indicated that Al Khelaifi was under suspicion only for actions taken as the head of the beIN group, which operates on five continents, respite is far for the Qatari.

Since August, he has been in the news, after overseeing PSG's world- record signing of Brazilian superstar Neymar from Catalan giants Barcelona.

It remains to be seen as to how Al Khelaifi will come out of this scandal.

Al Khelaifi may not meet the same fate as Bin Hammam because his proximity to the country's ruler whom he knows since their tennis playing days may save him for the time being.

But there is no doubt denying that Qatar's image as a nation with football ambitions has taken a beating with this double probe against an influential figure of the country.

At a time when FIFA is yet to recover from the fallout of 2015 annual conference when many of its officials were arrested for graft, the allegations against Al Khelaifi and Qatar is the least it could have wanted.

The 2022 World Cup local organising committee was left to fend for itself as it keeps sending repeated reminders that the tournament is on.

As the scrutiny on Al Khelaifi and Qatar is set to intensify in the coming days, the 'Beautiful Game' is the biggest loser.

Story first published: Monday, March 26, 2018, 12:41 [IST]
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