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arwebb

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Just as I suspected

Australia and it's equally corrupt tactics will also feel the heat

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/fifa-world-cup-2014/world-cup-news-2014/ffa-dragged-into-vote-corruption-allegations-20140602-39etx.html

Old news though ... as the corruption was reported back in 2010 -> http://www.thenortherntimes.com.au/story/886677/secret-millions-grease-world-cup-bid/

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Nothing will happen "as early as next week". For the time being, all eyes will be on Brazil, and once Spain has lifted the trophy in Maracana, it's time to look ahead if FIFA is really willing to act, which I don't see happening just yet. After all, Asia has 40+ votes in the FIFA President elections, and while they may not be a monolith block, Blatter would first have to see how to get the Asian and possibly African-Arab federations on his side in this matter before stripping Qatar barenaked.

You assume Asians, the most diverse of the continental bunches, will vote as one big block. Qatar is not that popular even in their own Arab neighborhood.

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You assume Asians, the most diverse of the continental bunches, will vote as one big block. Qatar is not that popular even in their own Arab neighborhood.

I am precisely not assuming, see my "monolith block" sentence. But Blatter will nevertheless make sure they're not suddenly turning against him as a rare act of solidarity.

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I do see Stefan's point. If Sepp can do it discreetly, he might as well try and see if anything can be gained (or not lost) politically before taking action. It's possible he could lose some Arab votes, but by taking the WC away from Qatar, he could also gain from others if they feel he is taking action for the good of the game.

Ahh who am I kidding. This is Sepp we're talking about. He's fooling no one.

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While the allegations are damaging and there was likely bribery involved, I think you will see FIFA move to sweep the evidence under the rug or perhaps say there's not enough. The reason is fairly simple. The fallout from stripping the World Cup from Qatar would be massive. Never mind the legal challenges that Qatar would make, there's a much bigger issue that FIFA would be facing, and I think it's one that they don't want anything to do with.

If FIFA were to strip Qatar of the World Cup, not only will be you see the endless parade of denials on the part of the Qataris, but they will spin this in the media that FIFA took the WC away not because of bribery, but they did it because Qatar is a Muslim country, and an Arab Muslim country at that. Remember how the Qataris spun their exclusion on the 2016 Olympic race when they said the IOC "closed the door on the Arab world." Well that was just over not making the short list. Imagine how they'd react now when they've been given the right to host an event and it's being taken away. They'd play the Muslim card and I'd venture to say nearly all of the Arab world would line up in support of the Qataris. You'd probably see boycotts of FIFA events as well on their part. They can turn this into a political issue and that's not something FIFA will want.

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While the allegations are damaging and there was likely bribery involved, I think you will see FIFA move to sweep the evidence under the rug or perhaps say there's not enough. The reason is fairly simple. The fallout from stripping the World Cup from Qatar would be massive. Never mind the legal challenges that Qatar would make, there's a much bigger issue that FIFA would be facing, and I think it's one that they don't want anything to do with.

If FIFA were to strip Qatar of the World Cup, not only will be you see the endless parade of denials on the part of the Qataris, but they will spin this in the media that FIFA took the WC away not because of bribery, but they did it because Qatar is a Muslim country, and an Arab Muslim country at that. Remember how the Qataris spun their exclusion on the 2016 Olympic race when they said the IOC "closed the door on the Arab world." Well that was just over not making the short list. Imagine how they'd react now when they've been given the right to host an event and it's being taken away. They'd play the Muslim card and I'd venture to say nearly all of the Arab world would line up in support of the Qataris. You'd probably see boycotts of FIFA events as well on their part. They can turn this into a political issue and that's not something FIFA will want.

I agree with all of this. Part of the issue is that the same organization that awarded Qatar the World Cup in the first place is the one to have to take it away. And it's the same organization that was part and parcel to the bribery. So for them to punish Qatar is to admit their own failings. Which is to say.. if they come down on Qatar, Qatar is going to take FIFA down with them.

And yes, then there's the political issue. I've said it before.. to strip Qatar of the would be an affront to them and probably most of the Middle East. I know some people think that's poppycock (I just felt like using that in a post for no good reason), but like stryker just pointed out, they've reacted to adversity before. This would go way beyond that. If we're to pretend for just a second that FIFA actually had good intentions in awarding a World Cup to Qatar and actually thought they had something to gain by putting the event there, the long-term damage caused by taking the event away from them would probably be far greater than if they had never been awarded the World Cup in the first place. Whether or not other Arab countries would follow remains to be seen, but if FIFA were to strip Qatar of the World Cup, it would absolutely be turned into a political issue.

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The Arabs are not a monolith. There are deep divisions between them, becoming ever more apparent due to events in Egypt and Syria of late.African Arabs have a lot of contempt for Arabian ones and even among the Arabian states there are deep divisions of mistrust and dislike. And in truth Qatar is becoming even more isolated over their financial and political support of the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE have downgraded and withdrawn ambassadors and political contact over the last 3 months. And really, how likely do you think the Jordanians or Moroccans or Algerians are going to get their knickers in a knock over Qatar getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Morocco cam within 2 votes of the World Cup. If FIFA truly had a genuine desire to get the World Cup into a Muslim nation; Turkey and Morocco would have been much better choices. Ones that would probably not have needed much arm-wrestling to get involved in a bid. But they took the bribes and we are stuck with the farce that is hosting a World Cup in a country that is pretty much the size of the greater Sydney metro area.

If I was FIFA and had the mechanisms in place to strip a World Cup, this is what I would do.

1) Follow Platini's suggestion of adding 8 teams to the World Cup, with most hosts now using 12 stadiums it would not require the enlargement of stadium requirements

2) Strip the World Cup from Qatar

3) Give Qatar an automatic qualification for the World Cup

4) Instead of having continental playoffs, have say 6 spots up for grabs in a winter/New Years qualification tournament to be hosted in Qatar.

Edited by faster
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I can agree with your points somewhat especially about Qatar becoming more diplomatically isolated over their support of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is still that concept of pan-Arab solidarity and although it's not as strong as it was many Arabs, especially those in the Gulf, view themselves as one people. There are certain issues that Arabs will unite no matter how much discourse they have amongst each other. One is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The other is Iran's nuclear program. The Saudis, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, they will throw their weight behind Qatar if FIFA takes the World Cup from them and even more will follow if the Muslim card is played. The Qataris have made a point of emphasizing that this is not just a Qatari World Cup but an Arab World Cup. It's all a big mess for FIFA.

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I can agree with your points somewhat especially about Qatar becoming more diplomatically isolated over their support of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is still that concept of pan-Arab solidarity and although it's not as strong as it was many Arabs, especially those in the Gulf, view themselves as one people. There are certain issues that Arabs will unite no matter how much discourse they have amongst each other. One is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The other is Iran's nuclear program. The Saudis, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, they will throw their weight behind Qatar if FIFA takes the World Cup from them and even more will follow if the Muslim card is played. The Qataris have made a point of emphasizing that this is not just a Qatari World Cup but an Arab World Cup. It's all a big mess for FIFA.

On the political side there is huge disagreement over the Israel-Palestine dispute. Its not like the Arabs were that sympathetic towards the Palestinians prior to 1967. From a popular stand-point this may cause a minor kerfuffle, but on the political front, like I said more Schadenfreude than support will likely come.

Do it so the Qataris still get something and it will do a lot to move forward. And orchestrating 2026 in either Morocco or Turkey would help too.

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And now France has been dragged into this with some officials now caught up in this corruption allegations scandal.

Well, the Qatar/France (read:Platini) links are pretty obvious already for years - which is perfectly playing into Giuseppe Machiav...Sepp Blatter's hands...

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Had to post this. Loved the image of Clinton smashing the hotel mirtor in rage:


Qatar World Cup 2022 scandal: Bill Clinton’s fury at vote triggered global search for truth

Bill Clinton looked anything but happy as he strode into the Savoy Baur en Ville hotel in Zurich in December 2010. The receptionists could tell he was irritated, but had no idea just how angry he was.

After closing the door to his suite, he reached for an ornament on a table and threw it at a wall mirror in a fit of rage, shattering the glass.

The former US president, who had spent two years travelling the world glad-handing members of football’s governing body, Fifa, could not believe America’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup had been beaten by, of all places, Qatar.

Mr Clinton, the honorary chairman of the US bid, had wheeled out such big-hitters as Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morgan Freeman and Spike Lee to add lustre to the US Soccer Federation bid. Australia and Japan’s bids had seemed the biggest threat, but few had seriously entertained the idea that Qatar, a footballing desert, could win.

“Clinton was fuming,” said one well-placed source. “He felt humiliated and felt the decision did not make sense.”

As Qatar’s bid team celebrated and the Fifa president Sepp Blatter declared football was going to “new lands”, questions were already being asked about the decision-making process. Why would Fifa award the World Cup to a small Gulf state with no footballing history, let alone stadia, where summer temperatures can reach 50C (122F)?

The answer could lie in a series of payments made by a senior Qatari official to various Fifa members. The Qatar 2022 bid committee is adamant that there is no link.

In the wake of Qatar’s victory, the US and Australian governing bodies, or sources close to them, each hired teams of private detectives who have worked behind the scenes since, interviewing witnesses and obtaining documents in the search for what they were certain was the hidden truth about the motives of Fifa members in voting for Qatar.

Whether there is any connection between these investigations and the leak of documents to The Sunday Times is unclear, but Australia and the US have most to gain if Qatar is stripped of the World Cup.

Meanwhile, newspapers have been making their own inquiries into the controversy.

In March this year, The Telegraph disclosed that Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, and his family were paid almost £1.2million by a Qatari firm linked to the World Cup bid. This newspaper also revealed that the 10-year-old daughter of a Brazilian Fifa executive who participated in the 2010 decision had more than £2 million put into a savings account set up in her name.

The Sunday Times has been given millions of leaked documents that appear to show a further £2 million in bribes that were paid to Fifa members in a plot allegedly organised by Mohamed Bin Hammam, Qatar’s most senior football official at the time.

Mr Bin Hammam is alleged to have used ten secret slush funds to make dozens of payments, many of them to accounts controlled by the heads of 30 African football associations who could lobby the continent’s four executive members over how to vote.

Mr Bin Hammam was banned from world football in 2011 after he was caught bribing voters in his bid to be elected Fifa president.

Now The Telegraph has discovered that Michel Platini, the president of Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA, held secret meetings with Mr Bin Hammam, and that Thailand was offered a gas deal in return for its support of the Qatar bid.

The clamour for Qatar to be punished has now built such momentum that Australia is said to be ready to re-run its bid if the 2022 tournament is up for grabs again, with the US likely to follow suit.

Where that leaves England’s World Cup ambitions is less easy to predict. England bid for the 2018 World Cup, given to Russia on the same day as Qatar was awarded the 2022 tournament.

David Cameron and the Duke of Cambridge were among those lobbying Fifa in the run-up to the vote in Switzerland, yet the bid got just two votes and was eliminated in the first round of voting.

Andy Anson, the chief executive of England’s bid, said some executive committee members had told lies. He had been confident that England could secure seven votes in the first round, a base that would have provided a platform for victory.

“I do feel people let us down, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t,” he said. “People who promised us our vote obviously went the other way.”

Even before Russia annexed Crimea, concerns had been raised about the country’s human rights and safety record, and there is speculation that if the 2022 vote has to be re-run, the 2018 vote would have to be re-run also.

Fifa is already looking at the possibility of moving the 2022 tournament to the winter months, and speculation is growing that Mr Blatter is looking for an excuse to reverse the decision altogether, with health concerns being a potential excuse.

A spokesman for the Qatar 2022 bid said Mr Bin Hammam had never worked for the bid and they knew nothing about his activities.

The Telegraph

Other interesting takeout is this is the first time I've seen Russia 2018 mentioned for re-voting. Though, it IS a British source.

Edited by Sir Rols
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This escalated quickly, I'm surprised that the FBI is staring to step in. Personally I believe that Qatar should be stripped of the WC and it should come to the US, but have Qatar's team automatically qualify because they shouldn't have to pay for other peoples mistakes.

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No, I don't think Qatar should qualify automatically. They are a disease to international sport. They buy athletes and have contributed nothing to the forwarding of the game of soccer. Let them try and qualify like everyone else.

As for the new host, I don't think they deserve an auto qualification spot either. They're stepping in as a relief host. Unless a new vote is held, it's not fair that a new host should be essentially handed an automatic qualifying spot when they weren't even supposed to be the host a few months earlier.

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A host must autoqualify, and even if some of them were not really up to the big guns while they hosted, they had usually regularly qualified in previous tournaments anyway. Qatar would again be the big exception and they sure wouldn't deserve autoqualification as compensation for not hosting, given the level of the team.

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IOC to "await outcome" of FIFA inquiry before investigating Olympic officials

No investigation will be launched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) into two members potentially implicated in the Qatar 2022 World Cup scandal until the ongoing inquiry is completed by the FIFA Ethics Committee, but the IOC are "aware" of the allegations.

This follows The Sunday Times in London revealing it had seen millions of secret documents which allegedly prove football officials were paid a total of $5 million (£3 million/€3.6 million) to back Qatar's bid.

Issa Hayatou, the IOC member from Cameroon who is also President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), is mentioned on numerous occasions in these documents, while Burundi's Lydia Nsekera, the first female member of the FIFA Executive Committee, is also named.

Nsekera, who was President of the Burundi Football Federation until 2013, is allegedly among 25 African Football Association officials presented with gifts amounting to $5,000 (£3,000/€3,600) when invited to a special meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Hayatou meanwhile, was reportedly present at a "lavish junket" in Doha at which delegates were lobbied over the 2022 bid, a month before Qatar 2022 announced an exclusive $1m (£600,000/€730,000) deal to sponsor CAF's annual congress in Angola.

The IOC did not dismiss these reports, and this certainly leaves open the possibility that an investigation may be opened by its Ethics Commission in the future.

But for now they are awaiting the findings of a FIFA investigation, led by New York lawyer Michael Garcia, that has spent two years looking into whether both the 2018 and 2022 World Cup winning bids were chosen fairly, and is due to conclude its probe next week.

"We are aware of the report in The Sunday Times involving the FIFA World Cup," IOC spokesperson Emmanuelle Moreau told insidethegames.

"At this stage, however, it seems like this is primarily a matter for FIFA to look into and to comment on.

"We understand that the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee is about to complete its investigation and that it will submit a report to the Adjudicatory Chamber."

"We await the outcome of the FIFA procedure."

Hayatou was also allegedly sent World Cup tickets worth $6,300 (£3,800/€4,300) to his hotel suite in 2010.

But the CAF have already strongly hit out at allegations that he is involved, claiming in a statement that the allegations were "fanciful" and part of a wider "smear campaign".

The statement added: "Mr Hayatou has never received any money from Mr [Mohamed] Bin Hammam, the Emir of Qatar or any member of the Qatar 2022 Bidding Committee."

It is not the first time allegations of corruption have been levelled against the Cameroonian, who was accused in 2011 of taking a bribe of $1.5 million (£923,000/€1.1 million) from Qatar for his vote.

The Ethics Committee's report into the two World Cup bids is expected to be submitted to FIFA's Adjudicatory Chamber by the end of July.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/football/1020521-ioc-to-await-outcome-of-fifa-inquiry-before-investigating-olympic-officials

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Annnnddd it's happened. The Race Card is on the table...

Asia's top Olympic official says allegations of corruption surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are driven by racism.
Kuwait's Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, spoke out against the allegations made in The Sunday Times newspaper.
The paper reported last weekend that former Qatari FIFA executive Mohamed bin Hammam paid football officials millions of dollars to support Qatar's successful World Cup bid. It's the latest in a long-running string of allegations regarding FIFA's vote in 2010 to award the tournament to the tiny Gulf state.
Sheik Ahmad said in Kuwait on the sidelines of an OCA meeting that the allegations stem from "racist actions toward Qatar and Arabs," and the accusations were based on "malice" and had "no justification."
He said "we will not let anyone take this tournament from us and we will hold it in this region."

http://news.yahoo.com/kuwaiti-sheik-qatar-allegations-based-racism-184045641.html;_ylt=AwrBTzhywpBTalEAM_JXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0a2ZiMmNoBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDI5M18x

Edited by Rob.
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Wow, I'm so shocked by this. Said no one. Ever.

Knew this was coming a mile away. It is interesting though.. seems like the Qataris have been quiet through all this (for obvious reasons), but I guess now they felt they needed to come out and say something. This whole thing just got a whole lot more fun! Time to go grab the popcorn.

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