Qatar bought the 2022 World Cup with $5 million in secret payments, according to a bombshell report in the Sunday Times.
There have long been rumors that the bid process was corrupt, and even FIFA president Sepp Blatter recently acknowledged giving the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was “a mistake.” According to the Sunday Times, it was a calculated $5 million mistake — one that cost the U.S. a shot at hosting the World Cup.
The Sunday Times analyzed “hundreds of millions of emails, accounts and other documents,” and found secret payments ex-Qatari FIFA vice president Mohamed bin Hammam made to international soccer officials to push his home country’s bid.
Bin Hammam — Qatar’s top soccer official — was banned from world soccer in 2011 after getting caught attempting to bribe his way into the FIFA presidency. He got the ban lifted via appeal, but never got cleared of the charges.
Though Qatar has insisted he wasn’t part of the bid committee, it appears he may have been the man in the shadows. The documents the Sunday Times uncovered show ties between bin Hammam and Qatar’s bid committee.
He reportedly bought support in Africa, paying several members of CAF’s ruling executive committee and another nine who sit on standing committees of the FIFA executive, the report shows. He bought votes with cash and “lavish junkets.’’
The report surely will raise eyebrows in the U.S. Soccer community. The U.S. originally had planned to bid on both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but in October 2010 decided to drop its bid for the former to concentrate on the latter.
It didn’t help, with the bid committee selecting Qatar on Dec. 2, 2010. Now the reasons appear clear — roughly five million of them.
U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati was not immediately available for comment. But he has stated in the past the U.S. would only seriously consider bidding for the 2026 World Cup if the bidding process is more transparent and fair.