Corruption threatens FIFA World Cup

10 days to the start of the World Cup in Brazil, corruption cases again soiling the controversial selection of 2022 World Cup in Qatar. A FIFA ex official named Mohammed Bin Hammam, the Qatari origin, allegedly made payments worth about € 3.7 million to 30 presidents of African football associations to buy supposedly the 2022 World Cup venue to Qatar, according to documents published by the British newspaper the Sunday Times.

At the same time, the American newspaper The New York Times published an extensive report detailing a report by FIFA which investigated some alleged intrigues of pre- 2010 South Africa World Cup.

The FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce, said yesterday that he would support a further ballot to elect the host country of the 2022 World Cup if it is established that there was corruption in the Qatar bid.

Michael Garcia, an investigator at FIFA, has met this Monday with the organizing committee of Qatar in order to find evidence of illegalities. “We have to analyze it very seriously,” said Boyce. The president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter admitted it was a “mistake” to grant Qatar the World cup due to high temperatures during the games.

The British newspaper The Sunday Times reveals the existence of thousands of emails, faxes and invoices showing the connection between Bin Hammam and African managers, although they were not entitled to vote, yes they could have some influence on the result of the choice of Qatar for football World cup in 2022.

The ex official paid about 3.7 million euros in order to rally support for the candidacy of Qatar and influence key committee members. Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Committee between 2002 and 2011, organized a “disguised bribe campaign” to garner support for the candidacy of his country, according to the British newspaper.

The shadow of fraud hangs over the future and past World cups. The preparation of South Africa 2010 is suspected. FIFA conducted a report that pinpoints the alleged rigging of several pre -tournament friendly matches by referees, according to the U.S. newspaper The New York Times. These colleges were paid by mafias seeking profits through betting.

The American newspaper highlights the friendly games played between South Africa and Guatemala. The team, in whose country the World Cup was held, won 5-0, albeit with questionable decisions by the referee. SThe newspaper accused the referee of having received 73,000 euros in a South African bank branch hours before the match.

According to the document FIFA mafia managed that bribed referees were appointed by the South African Federation for directing ” at least five games and probably more,” according to the conclusions of the investigation. Up to 15 international matches have been rigged by gangs allegedly linked to gambling in Asia. FIFA detected suspicious movements in the bookmakers on the number of goals that will be marked in the match between South Africa and Guatemala, much higher than usual.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=44806

Posted by Shakira Subhani on Jun 3 2014. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.