Interpol trashes Sunday Times report on probe into Qatar 2022 bid

QNA/Lyon (France)

The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has dismissed as baseless and groundless allegations by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper that Interpol called for an investigation, led by FIFA's chief investigator Michael Garcia, into the 2022 World Cup bids, affirming that the news is absolutely false.

The Sunday Times falsely stated that Interpol called for a criminal inquiry into the 2022 World Cup bids. No such call was made by the organisation, it said.

Interpol has stated clearly that it supports the FIFA inquiries, headed by Garcia, a former US prosecutor, and that it believes allegations of corruption should be thoroughly investigated.

Interpol’s stance was underlined by Secretary-General Ronald K Noble during an interview with CNN's Richard Quest on June 13, when he emphasised that Garcia was an experienced, thorough and expert investigator and that his findings and recommendations should be accepted and implemented by FIFA.

Garcia has already seen most of the evidence published by British newspapers, alleging that Mohamed bin Hammam corruptly bought influence for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid.

"The vast majority of that material has been available to us for some time," Garcia told FIFA’s congress of 209-member countries last Wednesday.

In a statement issued earlier on Sunday, the bid committee said Bin Hammam had no association with them while denying any suggestion of wrongdoing. The committee said it was co-operating with the ongoing investigation led by Garcia.

"The Qatar 2022 Bid Committee always upheld the highest standard of ethics and integrity in its successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” the statement said.

The statement further said: "In regard to the latest allegations from the Sunday Times, we say again that Mohamed Bin Hammam played no official or unofficial role in Qatar’s 2022 Bid Committee. As was the case with every other member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, our bid team had to convince Mr Bin Hammam of the merits of our bid.

‘‘We are co-operating fully with Mr Garcia’s ongoing investigation and remain totally confident that any objective enquiry will conclude we won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup fairly," said the statement.

‘‘Following today’s newspaper articles, we vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar’s bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter. The right to host the tournament was won because it was the best bid and because it is time for the Middle East to host its first FIFA World Cup,’’ it concluded.

Qatari organisers have “vehemently” denied accusations their successful bid was corrupt, saying its lawyers were looking into claims made by the Sunday Times.

In a report filling the first 11 pages of the newspaper, the Sunday Times claimed it had obtained millions of documents which it says show former FIFA executive committee member Bin Hammam made payments totalling around $US5 million to football officials in return for votes for Qatar.

Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the nation’s World Cup organising committee, said it had won the right to stage the finals with “the best bid”, and that it was “time for the Middle East to host its first FIFA World Cup”.