Qatar faced growing pressure over its hosting of the 2022 World Cup on Sunday after fresh allegations over the role disgraced former top football official Mohammed bin Hammam played in its bid.
Last week, Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper said it had obtained millions of emails, documents and bank transfers showing that bin Hammam paid over $US5 million ($A5.3 million) from slush funds to win support in the bidding process.
Now it has published new stories based on the same information which claim to detail bin Hammam’s moves in the weeks before the ballot as he sought to boost Qatar’s bid.
The allegations come the day before FIFA completes its probe into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, won by Russia and Qatar, chaired by former US attorney Michael Garcia.
One Sunday Times story claimed bin Hammam was invited to visit Russia’s then prime minister Vladimir Putin to discuss “bilateral relations in sport” at the end of October 2010.
This was just over a month before Russia and Qatar won the bids.
Another alleged that bin Hammam helped arrange talks on a major gas deal between Thailand and Qatar during a visit to Doha by the president of the Football Association of Thailand, Worawi Makudi, in August 2010, involving one of his advisers.
Worawi was quoted by the Sunday Times as denying that the gas deal came in exchange for supporting Qatar to host the World Cup.
He also denied receiving a personal “concession” from the deal.
Bin Hammam was formerly on FIFA’s executive committee but resigned in 2012, shortly before being banned for life from football administration by FIFA’s ethics committee.
In response to the Sunday Times latest allegations, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy insisted in a new statement that “Qatar has won the bid on its merits and we are confident that at the end of the appropriate process, the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will stand.”
It reaffirmed an earlier statement denying any wrong-doing and saying that bin Hammam “played no official or unofficial role” in the bid committee.
The committee said it has “fully co-operated” with the ongoing investigation and “consistent with FIFA’s rules we have been asked to refrain from commenting on the investigation and we will comply with that request.”
The choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup shocked many observers due to its searing heat in the northern hemisphere summer.
FIFA is due to hold its annual congress in Sao Paulo between June 9 and 12, where president Sepp Blatter is expected to announce his candidacy for a fifth four-year term.
It was also holding a meeting of its executive committee Saturday.
It has not yet commented in detail on the Sunday Times stories.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Nothing really new here unless a connection between Bin Hammam and the Qatari bid committee can be firmly drawn. The Qataris are doing everything they can to distance themselves from Bin Hammam.
Arnold Krewanty
Guest
Blatter is getting desperate. he's even thrown in the racism card. Sadly, nothing will happen. Qatar will remain.
TheVolley
Guest
With no real hard and fast rules and clear demarkations, it isn't easy to prove corruption unless there is a smoking gun. FIFA is rotten to the core and those in charge want it that way.
nordster
Guest
Looking less and less like simple "corruption" and more and more like your usual lobbying, investing and hospitality efforts every day! Just on a grander scale than everyone else....Qatar wins, well done to them.... :)