The Qatar 2022 World Cup bid team broke FIFA rules by running a secret campaign to sabotage their rivals for the tournament, News Corp has claimed.
The Sunday Times newspaper says it has been passed documents by a whistleblower who worked with the Qatar bid.
It says the bid team used a PR agency and former CIA operatives to disseminate fake propaganda about its main competitors, Australia and the United States.
This allegedly involved recruiting prominent figures to criticise the bids in their own countries, thus giving the impression they lacked support.
FIFA rules state that bidders must “refrain from making any written or oral statements of any kind, whether adverse or otherwise, about the bids or candidatures of any other member association which has expressed an interest in hosting and staging the competitions”.
Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said it “rejected” all the claims made by the paper.
According to The Sunday Times, the alleged smear campaign included paying a professor 9,000 dollars ($A12,000) to write a damning report on the economic cost of a US World Cup, recruiting journalists and bloggers to promote negative stories in the US, Australian and international media, and organising grassroots protests at rugby matches in Australia.
It has been reported that the following was said in an email: “We have a group of pro-rugby students in Melbourne, Australia, who will start appearing at rugby matches with signs ‘Hands off Our Rugby No to World Cup!’ in June.”
The leaked documents also revealed that a group of American PE teachers had been recruited to ask congressmen to oppose a US World Cup on the grounds the money would be better spent on high school sports, the paper claimed.
Lord Triesman, former chairman of the Football Association and England bid chairman, urged FIFA to “look at the evidence thoroughly” and said Qatar should not be allowed to “hold on to the World Cup” if they were shown to have broken FIFA rules.
The Qatar bid team has been accused of corruption but was cleared after a two-year inquiry by the FIFA ethics committee.
“The Supreme Committee rejects each and every allegation put forward by the Sunday Times,” Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said in a statement.
“We have been thoroughly investigated and have been forthcoming with all information related to our bid, including the official investigation led by US attorney Michael Garcia.
“We have strictly adhered to all FIFA’s rules and regulations for the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process.”
The Press Association has contacted FIFA for comment.
Neil
Guest
Read the article and am sad to say it is true, putting on boots at the age of 6 in country QLD and now in my sixties I have witnessed footballs hard ride. I was annoyed recently being asked if I was English because I followed football when my forebears arrived in Australia in the 1840's as though you are not a real Australian if you follow football.
Kurt
Guest
You enjoy watching images of people being assaulted. I think you need to talk to someone Claudio, all this fear and hate is going to burn you up.
Kurt
Guest
Hey Claudio, are you on commission for generating clicks on these websites?! You're doing a pretty good job of posting them on every single forum on this site at the moment...
Al Bundy
Guest
Football is played in many oval type stadiums around the world only difference in Australia is Aussie rules didn’t want soccer to play in their oval stadiums
MQ
Guest
As I state below, half the stadiums in the bid book were oval and were to be used by the AFL post-WC, so it looks like the AFL were set to gain the most from the WC since the other six stadiums would have been shared by the other three football codes.
RandyM
Guest
NRL and Super Rugby would benefit from upgraded infrastructural and stadiums for the WC so seems stupid they would protest. The other code probably wouldn't benefit much at all and we know that code can't stand not being the centre of attention in its heartland.
MQ
Guest
But this is the great contradiction in this debate. On the one hand, the AFL was apparently doing everything in its power to make our WC bid fail (even being on the payroll of the Qataris according to some!), but on the other hand, it had managed to make sure half the stadiums to be renovated were suitable for Australian Football, i.e. they were set to benefit the most out of staging the WC since the other six rectangular stadiums would have been shared by three football codes.
c
Guest
AFL would not be happy with the building of new recatangular soccer stadiums.
MQ
Guest
There was nothing wrong with our bid? Well, apart from the fact that half the stadiums proposed were oval and the final video was the worst video you are ever going to see in your life, no, there wasn't too much wrong with our bid. It was so good, we were able to buy one whole vote!
Fuss
Guest
You are so funny, chris. Everything you have said about the AFL opposing the WC is laughable, rather than cringeworthy. Of course you can back your statements up with facts & links, can’t you?
chris
Guest
Demetriou came out to say that the only way the AFL would support games played in Victoria would be if a WC game was a curtain raiser to an AFL game. Can it get more cringeworthy and embarrassing than that?
chris
Guest
Punter exactly right. Even a fly can be annoying. My point was that they tried to scupper it and were openly hostile to the bid. The NRL was not and people should not forget that.
punter
Guest
Don't forget they (AFL) discover women's sport & introduced professional sport into China.
Al Bundy
Guest
Many overseas call Aussie rules rugby as they have never seen Aussie rules. This to me makes sense as afl did everything it could to smear the Aussie bid as did many bloggers on many forums. There was nothing wrong with our bid it was pure and simply under mined. The money spent is no where near what the afl Continually revives form state and federal governments the World Cup Would at least brought money back into the Australian economy. Peter Fitz was also at the head of the queue.
Norm
Guest
The only myopic view comes from soccer fans, who think the NRL (& AFL for that matter) would willingly give up their grounds & cancel their season for 2 months. This is Australia, after all!
MQ
Guest
Still, it's a pretty big jump from being annoying to master minding some sort of international consipracy to destroy Australia's bid, conniving with the eventual winners no less ( who thought they were the Australian Rugby Union). This story is getting better and better. Don't stop!
Anthony
Guest
Today’s Financial Times has a correction on that laughable report that “pro-rugby students” were going to demonstrate at Melbourne rugby games. It was actually Rugby League fans protesting at the cancellation of NRL fixtures. Couod have still been in Melbourne - but more likely in Sydney
Norm
Guest
Well, MQ, if they wanted crowds like the AFL get (EG last Saty) they would have had to use the oval MCG!
punter
Guest
You are 100% correct a tiny little sport like AFL was never going affect whether the World cup was going to be held in Australia or not. But sometimes as we all know even a fly can be annoying despite it's size.
MQ
Guest
A timely reminder that nothing is ever what it seems in the Middle East. That a protest at a rugby game in Melbourne was meant to be at the heart of the disinformation spread about the Australian bid should have told us not to place to much credence on this report. A rugby game in Melbourne!