Proving yet another allegation levelled against Qatar as false, Real Madrid have issued an official statement denying any involvement of its president Florentino Perez  in Doha’s successful bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

The professional football club, based in Madrid, released the statement after France Football, a French bi-weekly magazine, alleged that Perez had a role in Qatar getting the chance to host football’s most prestigious event.

Doha has come under fire ever since it won the bid to host the World Cup 2022. Qatar has refuted all allegations of any wrongdoing and maintained that it had won the bid purely on merit.

France Football, one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, alleged that the club (Real Madrid)  and its president were involved in secret meetings that would see Qatar get the World Cup. Real, the world’s richest football club in terms of revenue, has also threatened legal action against the France Football’s “false” report.

The statement read: “It is absolutely false that there was a meeting in October 2009, or on any other date, with the delegation named in the report, nor with any other delegation, nor with the president of the Federación Española de Fútbol, nor with anybody in relation to Qatar’s World Cup candidacy. Real Madrid and their president, Florentino Pérez, will take the legal action they consider appropriate against France Football and against the authors of the report.”

Meanwhile, England and Australia, the two countries from the Western world who have been on the forefront of allegations of corruption in Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid have themselves tried to buy the support of  FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, according to a report in Trinidad Express.

The Trinidad- based newspaper said it has seen communications between the former powerful FIFA vice president and officials from the bidding teams of the two countries suggesting they might have acted inappropriately by contravening the same bidding procedures they allege Qatar flouted.

Trinidad Express Newspapers reported on Sunday that the former high-flying FIFA executive and Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West, Jack Warner accepted gifts from nations bidding to secure World Cup hosting rights in the run-up to the 2010 vote in violation of the Integrity in Public Life Act (IPLA) and FIFA’s own bid rules.

Related Story