Чемпионат мира по футболу 2022

[magadanez]

Тема вероятной смены страны-хозяйки развивается. И речь даже не о проведении турнира в декабре-январе месяцах. Хотя может и инсценируют, эти могут.

 

World Cup 2022: the allegations against Mohamed bin Hammam

The Sunday Times allegations are based on millions of internal emails and other documents, which the paper claims show that Bin Hammam paid $5m to African football officials, former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and former Oceania Fifa Exco member Reynald Temarii, while also hosting hospitality events to lobby for votes for Qatar. Roll over the faces below to see some of the main allegations against Bin Hammam

Qatar World Cup: Bin Hammam 'acted like head of crime organisation'

Fall of Qatari construction magnate closely follows arc of Fifa's shattered reputation 

 

The Qatari construction magnate Mohamed bin Hammam was in 2011 cast out from his gilded position at the commanding heights of world football's governing body. His fall closely traces the arc of Fifa's shattered reputation, and the melting credibility of his country's 2022World Cup project.

Now the subject of the Sunday Times's remarkably detailed allegations that he paid lavish bungs to Fifa officials while lobbying them to favourQatar, Bin Hammam was barely known outside Fifa before the vote in Zurich that secured Qatar the World Cup.

He had from 1996 been one of the 24 suited men in the executive committee – the Exco – which runs the multibillion-pound international game from Fifa's Zurich headquarters. Like several others around that top table and the president himself, Sepp Blatter, Bin Hammam had been the focus of corruption allegations; he was accused of paying cash to African delegates while supporting Blatter's presidential candidacy in 1998, and "acting like the head of a crime organisation" during his campaign in 2009 to retain his Exco seat.

Yet much of that, well-documented though it was by the veteran Fifa investigative journalist Andrew Jennings and others, seemed obscure to the football public, and Bin Hammam actually presented himself as a clean-up candidate when he began his charm offensive in preparation to stand against Blatter.

True to Fifa high-rollers' existence, spent ensconced in the swishest of transport and most lavish hotels, he hosted the English media at Claridge's in 2008, where with his gleaming smile, warm manner and talk of Asian football development, he appealed to the aspiration that football can help bring a divided world together.That ideal was – still is – central to the pitch crafted by Qatar's young executive bid team, imploring Fifa to overlook the desert heat, tiny population, human rights concerns and lack of stadiums or football tradition, for the symbolism of a first World Cup in the riven Middle East. There is overwhelming disbelief now that all of Fifa's Exco members based their votes on the merits of such bids, but it is important to remember how earnestly England's Football Association spent £21m, some of it public money, lobbying for the 2018 tournament.

Fifa just about held the line for the December 2010 vote, even though two of its Exco, Reynald Temarii of Tahiti and Amos Adamu of Nigeria, had been suspended following a "cash for votes" undercover sting, also by the Sunday Times. In the aftermath of 2018 going to Russia and 2022 to tiny, mega-rich Qatar, complaints in Zurich were more about collusion in voting than outright corruption.

Suspicion was always there, though, with billions of pounds at stake, and nation states desperate for the votes of so few men held so little to account. It seems extraordinary now, but six months later, when Bin Hammam announced his presidential candidacy, he was given credence as a candidate for reform.

He presented himself as a new broom from the coming Asian region, who might supplant the stench of graft which trails the Blatter tenure.

"I would call for more transparency in Fifa," Bin Hammam said, pressing his case for support in Europe.

Then the walls of credibility – Fifa's, Bin Hammam's, several other Exco members' and therefore their World Cup votes – came tumbling down uncannily close to the presidential vote. It was Sunday 29 May 2011, with delegates from Fifa's 203 football-playing nations gathered in Zurich, that Bin Hammam suddenly announced his withdrawal. Fifa followed that by announcing he had been suspended, due to paying $1m (£600,000) to 25 delegates of the Carribean Football Union, in now infamous $40,000 wads, dished out in unmarked envelopes by his then close associate and fellow Exco time-server, Trinidad's Jack Warner.

It always seemed suspect that Bin Hammam had been exposed – by Chuck Blazer, Warner's general-secretary at the north, central American and Caribbean football confederation, Concacaf – just as he was about to stand against Blatter. That left Blatter, career master of Fifa intrigue, to coast into the presidential election three days later as the only name on the ballot paper, for whom 186 of the 203 delegates dutifully queued up to vote. Despite Bin Hammam protesting his innocence, – pleading, in the lobby of one of Zurich's plushest hotels, that he was heartbroken – the allegations stood. On appeal, the court of arbitration for sport did find in July 2012 that they did not quite have indisputable evidence that Bin Hammam provided the $1m cash, but their decision was as qualified as can be, saying their ruling was not: "Any sort of affirmative finding of innocence … It is more likely than not that Mr Bin Hammam was the source of the monies."

Blatter was triumphant, but the public outing of Bin Hammam and Warner seemed to irreparably breach the dam of insistent Fifa denial that it was beset with any corruption.

Warner, seething, threatened a "tsunami" of revelations about what really went on during his years on the Exco, thunderously leaking an email in which the Fifa general-secretary, Jerome Valcke, wrote that Qatar had "bought the World Cup".

Valcke hastily clarified that he meant it figuratively, that Qatar's bid team had spent hugely on legitimate marketing, not that he was alleging bribes. Warner's "tsunami" never arrived, a reticence the Sunday Times has linked to $1.2m it claims its cache of internal emails show Bin Hammam wired to him in July 2011.

Warner resigned from football, before, in April 2013, both he and Blazer were found by a Concacaf investigation to have committed fraud and misappropriated money, allegations they deny. The same month, court documents in Zug, Switzerland, were finally disclosed to confirm the story Jennings had long alleged, that the former Fifa president Joao Havelange and long-serving Exco members Ricardo Texeira of Brazil and Ncolas Leoz of Paraguay had pocketed millions in bribes from the marketing company ISL – with Blatter's knowledge.

Now the Sunday Times, based on a massive leak from unnamed sources in Fifa, has assembled a picture of Bin Hammam flying around the world, including on the emir of Qatar's private jet, lobbying for the Qatar 2022 bid, dishing out cash gifts and lavish hospitality, to Warner, Temarii and African football delegates who appeared depressingly keen to take it.

Of the 24 Fifa Exco members in December 2010, Temariia and Adamu were suspended; Warner, bin Hammam, Blazer, Leoz and Texeira are all now tainted by corruption allegations, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and the delegates behind other African Exco members are implicated by the Sunday Times.

Blatter himself was exonerated by Fifa because the receipt of commercial bribes was not a crime in Switzerland at the time he knew the money was paid to Havelange.

Bin Hammam has not responded to the latest revelations tying him so closely to improper, cash-greased lobbying which Qatar's official 2022 bid team has again vehemently denied is associated with them. But facades are being relentlessly stripped away, revealing inexcusable, appalling corruption, among people already privileged enough, to be custodians of the great and simple, most popular game on earth.

 

Fifa faces calls to quash Qatar World Cup vote after corruption allegations

Shadow sports minister Clive Efford called for a rerun of the vote in which Qatar overcame rival bids from the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea to host the tournament. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Senior Fifa figures are for the first time seriously considering the ramifications of ordering a rerun of the vote for the right to stage the 2022 World Cup, in the aftermath of new corruption allegations against the hosts, Qatar.

While awaiting the results of a semi-independent inquiry into the 2018 and 2022 bidding races, senior football figures heading for the 2014 tournament in Brazil are understood to be considering their response if the report recommends a new vote in light of new claims based on hundreds of millions of leaked emails and documents.

In Britain, there was a renewed outpouring of concern from politicians and former football executives after the Sunday Times alleged thatMohamed bin Hammam, a Qatari former Fifa executive committee member, paid $5m (£3m) in cash, gifts and legal fees to senior football officials to help build a consensus of support behind the bid.

The UK government, humiliated over England's own bid for the 2018 tournament, which garnered just a single external vote, has previously said the corruption allegations are a matter for Fifa.

But the sports minister, Helen Grant, signalled a shift, saying: "These appear to be very serious allegations. It is essential that major sporting events are awarded in an open, fair and transparent manner."

The shadow sports minister, Clive Efford, called for a rerun of the vote, in which Qatar overcame rival bids from the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

"This issue calls the governance of football into question. No one will have any confidence in a Fifa investigation run by Sepp Blatter," he said.

"Fifa must take urgent action and reopen the bidding for the 2022 World Cup if it wants to restore its credibility."

Writing in the Guardian, the shadow international development secretary, Jim Murphy, added: "Fifa's rules are clear – the World Cup hosting must not be bought."

Mohamed bin Hammam is at the centre of corruption allegations. Photograph: Mohamad Dabbouss/Reuters

John Whittingdale, the Tory chair of the culture media and sport select committee, said Blatter's position was "almost untenable" and called for a "urgent and full transparent investigation to establish the facts".

Fifa, gathering in São Paulo for its annual congress before a 2014 World Cup that has had a troubled buildup amid anger from Brazilians at the cost and corruption, referred inquiries to the office of Michael Garcia.

The former US attorney in New York is conducting a supposedly independent ongoing investigation into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

He is expected to pass his conclusions to the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa's revamped ethics committee later this year. Meanwhile, the FBI is also conducting an ongoing investigation into payments to former Fifa officials.

Jim Boyce, the British Fifa vice-president, said he would have "absolutely no problem" if the ethics committee recommended a new vote in light of proven wrongdoing.

The Qatar 2022 organising committee claims that Bin Hammam, who was banned from football after bribing officials in a 2011 bid to unseat Sepp Blatter as Fifa president, had nothing to do with their bid.

Disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is alleged to have been paid $1.6m. He has always denied any wrongdoing. Photograph: Jam Media/LatinContent/Getty Images

The Sunday Times said it had obtained a cache of hundreds of millions of documents and emails, which detailed conversations about payments and money transfers from accounts controlled by Bin Hammam, his family and Doha-based businesses. Among many other alleged payments to mid-ranking football officials and figures including the former footballer of the year George Weah, Bin Hammam paid a total of $1.6m to the disgraced former Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, including $450,000 before the vote. Warner has always denied any wrongdoing.

He also allegedly paid $415,000 towards the legal fees of Reynald Temarii, the Fifa vice-president banned from voting in the original election following an earlier Sunday Times investigation. The legal process helped delay Temarii's replacement on the executive committee by his deputy, reducing the number of voting members to 22 and depriving Australia, one of Qatar's rivals, of a vote.

Qatar 2022 is likely to seek to argue that Bin Hammam was acting to further his presidential ambitions rather than on behalf of the World Cup bid. In a statement on Sunday it said he played "no official or unofficial role" in its bid.

"We are cooperating fully with Mr Garcia's ongoing investigation and remain totally confident that any objective enquiry will conclude we won the bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup fairly," said the organisers, who are consulting lawyers.

"We vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. The right to host the tournament was won because it was the best bid and because it is time for the Middle East to host its first Fifa World Cup."

But the newspaper said the email trails proved Bin Hammam was in fact intimately involved with the audacious two-year campaign to bring the World Cup to the tiny oil and gas-rich Gulf state, where temperatures can top 50 degrees in June.

In November 2010, the World Football Insider website quoted the bid chairman, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, as saying Bin Hammam was the campaign's "biggest asset" and had been a crucial mentor for his team.

One obstacle surrounding a potential re-vote, apart from a likely legal challenge from Qatar, would be the difficulty in re-running the 2022 vote without also reopening the 2018 process. Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup in an ill-defined dual process riddled with controversy.

Despite promising his current term would be his last – and the ongoing travails of the organisation with which he is inextricably linked – Blatter, who last month called the choice of Qatar "a mistake", has vowed to stand again for the Fifa presidency in 2015.

 

 

Fifa ethics head Michael Garcia won't look at new corruption allegations

Millions of files raise fresh questions over Qatari bid for the 2022 World Cup, with Garcia's report on the issue due 9 June

 

 

It is understood Garcia has not asked for documents, including emails and accounts linked to the Qatari former Fifa vice-president Mohamed bin Hammam. 

 

Fifa's chief ethics investigator will not consider millions of documents underpinning a new wave of corruption allegations surrounding the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Michael Garcia promised to complete his work by next week, but his decision not to examine the documents obtained by the Sunday Times could undermine faith in his investigation at a crucial time.

It is understood that Garcia has not asked for the documents, said by the newspaper to number hundreds of millions of files including emails and accounts linked to the Qatari former Fifa vice-president Mohamed bin Hammam.

Those familiar with the cache say it would be impractical for him to examine them before his new deadline, days before the 2014 tournament begins in Brazil on 12 June. Qatar has faced calls to be stripped of the 2022 World Cup in the wake of fresh allegations that Bin Hammam used a $5m (£3m) slush fund to not only buy goodwill for his tilt at the Fifa presidency but to aid the 2022 bid.

"After months of interviewing witnesses and gathering materials, we intend to complete that phase of our investigation by 9 June 2014, and to submit a report to the adjudicatory chamber approximately six weeks thereafter," said Garcia.

"The report will consider all evidence potentially related to the bidding process, including evidence collected from prior investigations."

Garcia has spent more than a year and £6m travelling the world to interview those involved in the race to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments and investigate allegations of bribery and corruption.

He has interviewed representatives from all nine of the bidding nations, including a summit with a Qatari delegation on Monday. His findings will inform the Fifa president Sepp Blatter's decision on whether to order a revote.

But the fact that Garcia will not properly analyse the evidence from the Sunday Times database, which will form the basis of further allegations about the Qatar bid in the weeks to come, will raise concerns that he has already formed a view.

Jim Murphy, the shadow secretary for international development, said: "If the Garcia investigation refuses to accept the Sunday Times evidence the process will be a sham and Fifa will be forever tainted. Corruption must be tackled."

Meanwhile, David Cameron, who was one of the so-called "three lions" involved in the final push in December 2010 for England's doomed £21m bid to host the 2018 World Cup, said Garcia's inquiry should be allowed to take its course.

"We will see what happens with this inquiry into the World Cup. And who knows what the chances may be for the future," the prime minister said.

"There is an inquiry under way, quite rightly, into what happened in terms of the World Cup bid for 2022. We should let that inquiry take place rather than prejudge it.

"My memories of that bidding process are not happy memories in terms of the way the whole thing was arranged and the role of Fifa."

Cameron said he, David Beckham and the Duke of Cambridge were assured by numerous Fifa members of their support.

But in the end England secured only one vote among the 22 executive committee members apart from that of their own Fifa vice-president, Geoff Thompson.

He added: "I'll always remember Beckham saying to me afterwards: 'I can cope with being lied to but I can't cope with people lying to the prime minister and the future king'."

Two of the failed bidders for the 2022 World Cup, Australia and Japan, have joined calls for the bidding race to be rerun. Both exited in the early rounds of the voting process, with Qatar defeating the US 14-8 in the final runoff.

Yuichiro Nakajima, the head of Japan's unsuccessful bid to host the 2022 World Cup, said the allegations should be investigated by Garcia and backed calls for the bid process to be rerun. "All of this points to the need for a major reform of how Fifa is governed," he said.

The chief executive of the Football Federation Australia, David Gallop, said the new revelations were a serious development and told local media his federation had been involved in interviews and the production of documents.

"It's too early to say whether that reopens the door of anything that happened a few years ago in terms of Australia's position but it's a bit of a 'watch this space' at this stage," he said.

"We've been heavily involved in this now for many months in terms of the investigation that Mr Garcia is carrying out. We've got people who've been involved for some time now."

The Qatar 2022 bid committee has denied any wrongdoing and said it had nothing to hide. "We say again that Mohamed bin Hammam played no official or unofficial role in Qatar's 2022 bid committee."

Mark Pieth, the chairman of Fifa's recently disbanded independent governance committee, said the vote should be rerun. He told CNN: "What I think is that it's going to shake Fifa to the foundations, because it's the first time that an institution like Fifa has to ask itself whether it should totally rerun the decision of a host, the hosting decision, and the consequences could be massive, could be about billions of dollars."

Meanwhile, Michel Platini, the president of the European football federation, Uefa, is discussing the possibility of leading a sit-down protest when Blatter announces his intention to stand again as Fifa's president in Brazil next week.

Platini, who is increasingly considered unlikely to challenge Blatter for the top job, may ask the heads of the 54 European FAs to remain seated when the majority of the other 155 Fifa members rise to acclaim the announcement as a means of registering disapproval at Blatter's decision to stand for a fifth term despite earlier promising to stand down.

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