BERLIN – As Qatar gears up to host the World Cup in 2022, a leaked report published by German tabloid Bild suggests the Gulf country and FIFA took part in corrupt practices during and after the bidding process.
Bild has published the first of a series of extracts from the 430-page report, which was written by former FIFA independent ethics investigator Michael Garcia in 2014. The dossier represents one of the biggest investigations ever carried out in the world of sports.
One extract of the report allegedly states that those seeking to bring the World Cup to Qatar “served to undermine the integrity of the bidding process.”
https://twitter.com/PRossberg/status/879392381157744644
In particular, the report mentions the role played by Aspire Academy, one of the biggest sports academies in the world, which aims to find and develop Qatari athletes.
It says Aspire Academy was “implicated in a decisive manner in the manipulation of FIFA members who had the right to vote.”
The report also claims that three FIFA executive members were flown to Rio in a private jet provided by the Qatari Football Association, ahead of the vote for 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights.
It also states that the 10-year-old daughter of a FIFA official received a deposit of two million Swiss francs (US$2 million) into her bank account months after the ballots were cast.
In addition, the report claims that the husband of one of disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s closest aides was handed a contract in Qatar for his construction company.
Meanwhile, Peter Rossberg, the Bild journalist who obtained the copy of the report, wrote on Facebook that the dossier does not provide “proof” that the World Cup in Qatar had been bought.
