Qatar bid to host 2022 World Cup “corrupt”: Bild

CAIRO – 27 June 2017: “Qatar’s World Cup bid process was inherently flawed amid allegations of bribery and corruption,” German newspaper Bild revealed on Monday.

In its bombshell report titled “Bild reveals what FIFA keeps secret,” Bild claimed that three FIFA executive members flew on a private aircraft belonging to the Qatar Football Association ahead of the vote for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids in 2010.

Bild also added that “The Qatar-based Aspire Academy was ‘implicated’ in a decisive manner" in "the manipulation of FIFA members who had the right to vote.” Aspire Academy is a prestigious Qatari sporting academy with a focus on the recruitment of professional level young athletes in the Gulf country.

Moreover, Bild also reported that in 2014, the then-FIFA’s independent ethics investigator Michel Garcia formulated a report confirming that the Qatari bid process was tainted with alleged corruption, illegalities and wrongdoings. His report was later refuted by FIFA.

“Garcia quit in December 2014 in protest at the handling of his report into the bidding process,” it added.

Gracia spent roughly two years investigating the nine bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups since his appointment in 2012.

“Speaking before he resigned, Garcia said the version of his report that FIFA published contained ‘numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations,’" the BBC reported, citing Bild.

The BBC also reported that “In 2014, English publications obtained a number of FIFA-related secret documents containing allegations that Qatari sporting figure Mohamed Bin Hammam gave £3 million to FIFA officials in exchange for supporting the Qatari bid to host the prestigious World Cup.”