Qatar’s Accuser Recants Bribery Allegations Ending US Hopes

The story behind Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup has become even stranger.

An ex-employee of the bid committee who made serious accusations of corruption and bribery against them, has now recanted her claims.

Phaedra Almajid had made a series of corruption allegations involving FIFA executive but has now told the BBC that she fabricated the claims.

She had accused three members of the FIFA Executive Committee (Exco), Issa Hayatou, Jacques Anomua and Amos Adamu of accepting $1.5m to vote for Qatar.

Almajid has now signed a legal affadavit retracting the allegations after realising her “lies had gone too far”.

A FIFA statement confirmed that they had been made aware of her recantation:

“FIFA can confirm receipt of an email from a person claiming to have made allegations related to the Qatar 2022 bid process and now retracting these allegations.”

The news will come as a blow to those in Australia and the USA who had harboured secret hopes that the accusations of bribery to obtain the bid would force FIFA to reopen the matter.

Based on Almajid’s then anonymous claims, the British Parliament’s  Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport launched an inquiry into the Qatari bid.

At the time, the Qataris claimed the accusations were the work of a bitter ex-employee, a claim that now seems vindicated.

Almajid told the BBC of her regrets about the trouble her allegations had caused:

“I was very upset after I left the bid and wanted to basically hurt the bid back. My intentions were to make a few headlines, I never expected that my lies would be carried on and discussed in parliament. It just went too far. I never expected it to come to this point. There was never anything suspicious or any wrongdoing on Qatar’s part.

I cannot tell you how sorry I am. I have hurt reputations of three members of the FIFA exco, I have hurt their reputation, and more importantly I have hurt my colleagues on the Qatar bid.”

The news could also embarrass the UK Parliament’s Committee who last week published a report on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids

Almajid also admitted to tampering with a Qatar 2022 bid strategy document which she then leaked to journalists and added that she was placed under no pressure or paid any money by Qatar 2022 to recant her accusations.

The Qataris are understandably delighted and reaffirmed their denials of bribery while admitting to outspending all their rivals for the 2022 World Cup.

Hassan al Thawadi is the general secretary of the Supreme Committee For The 2022 World Cup. He told BBC Sport:

“The Qatar bid did not do anything wrong. The attack on 2022 fits the prejudice people have in their minds. An Arab nation could not have won. We will not lie, our bid budget was significantly higher than any of the other bids, yes.”

Asked whether Qatar bribed any FIFA Exco members to win the World Cup, al Thawadi replied: “Plain and simply, no.”

Qatar beat Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States to host the tournament and this chapter almost certainly ends any hope of a re run of the vote as surely any further accusations will be treated with the utmost scepticism.