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Qatar followed Kalmadi's footsteps for 2022 WC rights!!

By Biswajeet Panda
London, May 11: Qatar, which made history by winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosting rights, may just have resorted to the Suresh Kalmadi's ways to clinch the deal. Revelations made in the British House of Commons' enquiry on May 10, disclosed that six FIFA officials were prepared to sell their votes for up to $1.5 million each to support Qatar"s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

It can be recollected that Qatar beat the USA, Australia, Japan and South Korea to win the rights for 2022 World Cup, through a voting process in December 2010.

In evidence produced on May 10 and republished in the form of a letter on the Commons' website, The Sunday Times alleges that Michel Zen Ruffinen, a former secretary general of FIFA, introduced undercover reporters to an acquaintance, Amadou Diallo.

The letter claimed that Diallo was a chief assistant to Issa Hayatou, the Confederation of African Football"s president and also that Ruffinen is said to have insisted Qatar was “using Diallo to arrange financial deals with the African [FIFA committee] members in exchange for World Cup votes".

Ismail Bhamjee, a former member of the FIFA executive committee, was quoted in the report as saying, “And I"m told the Africans will get… anything from a quarter to half a million dollars... This is separate from the football."

The letter also claimed that The Sunday Times had been told by “a whistle-blower that worked with the Qatar bid" that the Gulf state had paid $1.5 million to Hayatou and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast to secure their vote.

Lawyers of the Qatar bid team as well as the Qatar Football Association have termed the allegations as false and have issued a statement, stating that the bid team “categorically deny" the allegations.

OneIndia News
Story first published: Tuesday, August 8, 2017, 11:47 [IST]
Other articles published on Aug 8, 2017