. Interpol denies calling for probe into 2022 bids

QNA

Lyon, France

The International Criminal Police Organisation has dismissed as baseless allegations by the British Sunday Times newspaper that it has called for investigation, led by FIFA’s chief investigator Michael Garcia, into the World Cup 2022 bids, affirming that the news is absolutely false and bare of truth.

The UK’s Sunday Times falsely said that Interpol has called for a criminal inquiry into the 2022 World Cup bids. No such call was ever made by Interpol.

Interpol has stated clearly on several occasions that it supports the FIFA inquiries, headed by Michael J Garcia, a former US prosecutor, and that it believes allegations of criminal corruption should be thoroughly investigated wherever they occur.

Interpol’s standpoint was once again underlined by its Secretary General Ronald K Noble during an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest on Friday, June 13, when Noble also emphasised that Garcia is 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 a British newspaper 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 Sunday, the bid committee said bin Hammam had no association with them while denying any suggestion of wrong-doing. 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 on-going 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 wrong-doing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar’s bid and our lawyers are looking in to 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.

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 Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar made payments totalling around $5mn 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”.

Britain, Australia tried to ‘buy’ FIFA VP’s vote

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, reports 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.

Camini Marajh, head of investigative desk at Trinidad Express Newspapers reported on Sunday that the former high-flying FIFA  executive and Trinidad politician , 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.

“In the run-up to FIFA’s controversial bid to select host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, England sought to secure Warner’s support by footing the bill for the Warner-arranged Caribbean Football Union (CFU) dinner at the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya, and provide financial and technical support for other Warner-identified development projects in Trinidad.

Sunday Express (Sunday edition of Trinidad Express) investigations have found Warner accepted gifts  from bidding nations, including the English football association, The FA; the Russians, Mohamed bin Hammam and Australia.

“In the case of the Australians, a $462,000 donation for a Trinidad stadium upgrade ended up in Warner’s pockets. Australia also provided a $2.5mn grant to Warner’s buddy and president of the Jamaican Football Federation Captain Horace Burrell late in the bidding process in October 2010,” Sunday Express said.