Qatar has lost their bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The country’s national federation may run into further trouble after the latest revelations that the Qatar Bid Committee had tried to sabotage the rival bids.
The Qatar Bid committee had hired former CR Agents and public relations for a dirty campaign to sabotage rival bids. The act violates the FIFA rules, Sunday Times has reported in an exclusive investigative report. The Qatar 2022 bid committee has denied the allegations.
The campaign was aimed at discrediting and sabotaging rival bids by the USA and Australia. FIFA’s bidding rules restrain bidding nations from “making any written or oral statements of any kind, whether adverse or otherwise, about the bids or candidatures of any other member association which has expressed an interest in hosting and staging the competitions”.
Qatar 2022 allegedly paid one respected academic $9,000 (£6,900/€7,700) to write a negative report on the economic impact of a World Cup in the US. Besides, a group of American physical education teachers was recruited to ask their US Congressmen to oppose a US World Cup on the grounds that the money would be better used on high school sports. In Australia, grassroots protests were stage-managed at rugby games to oppose the country’s bid.
Qatar 2022 have reportedly run the secret campaign to establish that the USA and Australia would not get the desired support at home to host the World Cup. The smear campaign was, claims the paper citing leaked emails, run by the New York office of communications company Brown Lloyd Jones. The initiative with mala fide intent also availed services from journalists and bloggers.
Grassroots protests were also allegedly orchestrated as part of the secret plot at rugby matches in Australia.
Qatar controversially secured the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup over bids from the US, Australia and a joint South Korean and Japanese attempt at a vote of the FIFA Executive Committee in December 2010.
Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, in a statement, has rejected “each and every allegation put forward by the SundayTimes.
“We have been thoroughly investigated and have been forthcoming with all information related to our bid, including the official investigation led by US attorney Michael Garcia,” it said. “We have strictly adhered to all FIFA’s rules and regulations for the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process.”
The post Qatar sabotaged rival bids for World Cup 2022 with ‘black operations’: Report appeared first on InsideSport.
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