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FIFA President Sepp Blatter speaks to the media. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
“(Mohamed Bin Hammam) thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the World Cup.” Those are the damning words of FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke, which have cast serious doubts on Qatar’s legitimacy to host the 2022 World Cup and proved football’s governing body is starting to lose all credibility.
Valcke made the statement in an email to CONCACAF president Jack Warner, who along with Bin Hamamm has been suspended following an investigation by FIFA’s ethics committee.
Warner has threatened to unleash a “football tsunami” in the wake of his suspension, and releasing details of Valcke’s explosive email appears to be the first act in a campaign designed to bring down current FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
With allegations of corruption swirling around the corridors of power in Zürich, Valcke’s inference that bribery played a role in the naming of Qatar as 2022 World Cup hosts brings into question just how much FIFA knew about the tactic of paying for World Cup votes.
It appears they knew something, although Bin Hammam suggested the allegations against him are part of a Blatter-lead conspiracy and has pledged to appeal the decision of the ethics committee, of which Australian broadcaster Les Murray is a member.
Murray slammed the decision to take the World Cup to Qatar last December, and he was quoted in The Australian at the time saying he thought the vote was “ludicrous.”
“As a private individual I’m convinced there was collusion,” said Murray, stressing the fact he was not speaking on behalf of the ethics committee.
“Nobody will believe that Qatar won this process legitimately. People will continue to probe away asking questions and looking for answers.”
Prescient words indeed, and with the credibility of the voting process in tatters, there’s growing clamour for a re-vote – even if none of the allegations have so far been proved.
That’s a fact our federal sports minister Mark Arbib was quick to point out, and he told the SBS World News program that Australia would not push for a re-vote or for a refund of the more than $45 million of taxpayers’ money spent on a doomed campaign.
“The allegations haven’t been proven yet in relation to corruption and they need to be tested by the FIFA ethics committee, and we have confidence that that committee will have a thorough investigation,” Arbib said.
Even if a re-vote took place it’s unlikely Australia would benefit, with the United States almost certain to host the tournament at Qatar’s expense.
Whatever happens from here on in, the entire process is an indictment on Sepp Blatter, who somehow comes out of the affair politically unscathed despite a parallel investigation into his conduct.
The suspension of Bin Hammam means Blatter stands uncontested for re-election as FIFA president tomorrow, a sad fact which only serves to further damage football’s crumbling reputation.
Under Blatter’s leadership football governance has descended into farce, yet no scandal appears too damaging for the Swiss-born supremo to relent his vice-like grip on power.
What a sorry state of affairs it is to have FIFA’s own president investigated by its ethics committee, and no doubt the insatiable Warner will drop more bombshells in his bid to discredit Blatter.
In the end it’s football fans who lose, with the World Cup voting process now a running joke as the presidential seat is handed back to the man who manufactured it.
If the decision to name Qatar as 2022 hosts some twelve years out from the tournament seemed suspicious last December, it now seems positively scandalous if FIFA’s own general secretary Valcke is to be believed.
It’s just a shame FIFA lacks a strong leader to guide it through such a potentially devastating corruption scandal, which threatens to completely undermine football’s fast fading credibility.