According to a bombshell report in yesterday’s Sunday Times, the tiny but disproportionately wealthy and influential peninsula state of Qatar bribed FIFA officials to the tune of $880 million in order to secure its bid to play host to the 2022 World Cup. Play Video
Per The Guardian:
The allegations were first made in a book, Whatever It Takes — the Inside Story of the Fifa Way, by a whistleblower from inside Australia’s failed 2022 bid, Bonita Mersiades, in January 2018. However, the Sunday Times said it had also seen documents showing executives from al-Jazeera had signed a TV contract that included an unprecedented success fee of $100m — which would be paid to Fifa only if Qatar won the World Cup ballot in 2010.
The documents allegedly state : “In the event that the 2022 competition is awarded to the state of Qatar, al-Jazeera shall, in addition to the…rights fee, pay to Fifa into the designated account the monetary amount of $100m.” …
The Sunday Times said it also had seen a copy of a second secret television rights contract for a further $480m that was offered by Qatar three years later — which it said was now part of a bribery inquiry by Swiss police.
The allegations are likely to lead to further suspicion as to whether Qatar played fair when it bid to host the World Cup. – MORE