Qatar bribes for votes to host 2022 World Cup

CAIRO – 28 November 2017: U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors have revealed that Qatar paid $22 million to the former president of the Brazilian Confederation (CBF) Ricardo Teixeira to vote for Qatar to host 2022 World Cup, French online news website Mediapart reported on Sunday.

Brazilian justice ministry and the FBI discovered the transfer after they had investigated the bank statements of Teixeira from an account he had opened at a Swiss-based facility called Pasche Monaco.

Mediapart reported that Qatari group, Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad & Sons Group (CSSG), transferred the payment to Teixeira’s bank account in January 2011; one month after Qatar had taken the international tournament.

"In early 2013, several transfers were in effect, issued the same day from his account, to Jack Warner who was then president of the Confederation of Football North America, Central America and the Caribbean, as well as Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Confederation of Asian Football, and Nicolas Leoz, president of the Confederation of South America,” according to Mediapart.

Teixeira who resigned from his role at the Brazilian Football Federation in 2012 was accused of money laundering and fraud throughout his 23-year tenure as boss. He voted for the tournament to be held in Qatar.

This came in light of former Argentine football marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco’s confession on November 14 before the U.S. court on the corruption case that hit the International Federation of Football Association since 2015.

Burzaco also pointed out that the late FIFA senior vice-president Julio Grondona took $1 million to vote for Qatar to host the tournament in 2022.

Besides, three former South American football officials are currently on trial accused of being involved in a £120m bribery scheme, related to broadcasting and hosting rights for football tournaments.

In September, the Arab Federation for Human Rights called for pulling the 2022 World Cup from Qatar by providing two reports. One report claims that Qatar monetarily bribed officials in order to host the World Cup, Saudi News Channel reported.

Qatar aims to use sports, especially the World Cup, to project itself on the global stage, which is one of the reasons why Qatar has been hosting an array of sporting events.

Qatar will suffer from the delay of materials necessary to construct the nine stadiums and huge infrastructure to host the 2022 World Cup after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain closed the only land route into Qatar and refused to allow them to use their sea ports or airspace.

In September, the boycotting countries did not participate in the draw for the Middle East soccer tournament in Doha and declared they wanted to postpone the tournament.