Qatar World Cup Vote Could be Overturned

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has given the first public indication that the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has been thrown in doubt.

Recent allegations made to a committee of the British Parliament pointed the finger not just at those who had accepted bribes, but at those who had offered them.

Having been reprinted in the Sunday Times, they entered the public domain.

In the evidence presented, it was alleged that FIFA Executive Committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma took bribes of $1.5m each to vote for Qatar.

(UK Parliament hears allegations of Qatari bribery )

Blatter is facing re-election at a FIFA meeting beginning on June 1st and is being forced to confront the issue of corruption head on.

His opponent is Qatari Mohammad Bin Hammam and cynics have noted that drawing attention to the behaviour of the Qataris may spread some concern about Bin Hammam himself just in time for the vote.

Blatter conceded that the award to Qatar is unpopular. Reasons for that cover the climate in the summer in the desert nation, their subsequent desire to play it in January which was downplayed until the vote was won, a poor human rights record, lack of gender equality, doubts over the freedom of the press and lack of the necessary hotel accommodation for fans.

Suggesting that some fans may have to use accommodation in a tyrannically oppressive country like Saudi Arabia furthered the outcry, given that women are denied even basic rights there.

FIFA were unconcerned with that sadly but the allegations that it was inducements that led to that lack of concern provided more ammunition to those who opposed the original award.

Blatter said that the prospect of rerunning the vote is “alarming”, although he notably and perhaps prophetically did not rule out the possibility.

This will ring bells across the world no more so than in the United States, which finished second in the voting. Football is undergoing a boom in the United States with crowds at Major League Soccer games, especially in the Pacific Northwest, encouraging.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber described the game as ‘booming but not boomed’, suggesting he thinks the current wave of interest may have further to crest.

Qatar won the FIFA vote last December after outspending their rival bidders, but it is the nature of that spending that is now the centre of global attention.

Blatter has said that a FIFA inquiry into persistent and increasingly detailed claims of corruption could lead to the Executive Committee (ExCo) making the unprecedented move of rerunning the vote.

Such a move would be a monumental embarrassment to FIFA but that has to now be balanced with the equivalent embarrassment of more allegations leaking out.

His exact words were somewhat cryptic:

“Don’t ask me now yes or no, let us go step by step. It’s like we are in an ordinary court and in an ordinary court we cannot ask: ‘If, if, if’.”

Blatter also conceded that support for re-running the vote was “circulating around the world”.

Blatter’s opponent Bin Hammam was heavily involved in lobbying for his nation to win the award and it is practically impossible to imagine that widespread corruption to support the bid was going on without his knowledge.

The alleged whistle blower who told the Sunday Times of the allegation will travel to give evidence to FIFA.

The timing of Blatter’s remarks, so close to the vote against Hammam, will incur cynicism too but the wily 75-year-old Swiss has already attracted the support of the European and African federations, from which a sizable chunk of the voting Football Associations are drawn.

Although similar accusation emerged, mostly from defeated England, about the nature of the Russian 2018 bid, there seems to be less evidence and far less support for an investigation into that award.

This would mean that the 2018 World Cup stays in Europe, ruling out a European bid for 2022. It may well come down to the USA v Australia should there be a re-run.

Of course, there is every reason to expect the electorate to be dramatically different than the 22 who voted for Qatar.

If the decision is overturned, there will be plenty of machinations to come yet.

Related:

What if Qatar did bribe voters?