A member of Qatar’s World Cup bid has claimed that three African officials were offered bribes to back the nation’s bid to host the tournament.
The Sun reports that an official made the allegations in the explosive Netflix series, FIFA Uncovered.
Phaedra Almajid, who was in charge of international press for the bid, claims Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou, Ivory Coast’s Jacques Anouma, and Nigeria’s Amos Adamu were offered A$2.3 million for their vote.
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Qatar went up against the likes of Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the USA for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Almajid alleges that Hassan Al Thawadi, who headed up the bid, offered a serious sum to African football chiefs in order to secure their vote.
She told the documentary, via The Times: “We were talking about how Africa had been given its chance to host the World Cup and how the Arab world should be given their chance, and then Hassan offered Hayatou $1 million for Hayatou’s football federation (Cameroon) and in return we wanted his vote.
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“I remember there just being laughter and then him saying that is not enough, and so the price was upped to A$2.3m — just like that.
“It was just so simple: ‘We will give you this money for your football federation, you give us your vote and thank you so much.’
“One by one we did the same thing with Anouma and Adamu. A$2.3m was offered to each member that evening in exchange for their vote. It was verbal, I never saw money.”
She claims the offer came at a meeting of African football federations in January 2010.
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However, she stresses that the proposed offering was made to the federations rather than the individuals.
She added: “It was made very clear the money was going to football, it was never said it is going into your pocket, I do need to emphasise that. Where it ended up I have no idea.
“Before I went back to my hotel room, Hassan told me, ‘You never repeat this ever again to anyone’ and I was like, ‘OK.’”
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Almajid had previously anonymously revealed the offers to the Sunday Times after being sacked, however, later withdrew her claims after being threatened by the Qatar football bid.
She explained in the doc: “I’m starting to get threats, anonymous calls, emails, social media.
“I was basically told either you sign an affidavit stating that you lied or else we are legally going to come after you.”
Al Thawadi has denied the claims, according to The Sun.
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He said: “My reaction, especially on the Phaedra situation, it’s frustration.”
“They are inherently false and there are facts on the ground that prove they are false.”
SPORTbible has reached out to the Football Federations of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast, as well as the Qatar World Cup committee for comment.
The committee said: "We are 100% confident in the integrity of our bid.
"Throughout the entire bidding process, we strictly adhered to the regulations that were in place.
The former employee of the Qatar bid has repeated allegations that were previously retracted, altered documentation to serve an agenda, and continuously lied on the record. Her allegations were deemed not to be credible in Michael Garcia’s report (published in 2017).
"With the first Arab and Middle Eastern World Cup only weeks away, she has unfortunately decided to regurgitate these falsehoods. We urge you to consider the facts before providing further airtime to an individual who has proven herself on numerous occasions as an unreliable source.
"We cooperated fully (unlike numerous other bids) with Mr. Garcia’s investigation and we reiterate our integrity and conduct throughout the bidding process and to this date. "
Topics: Football, Qatar, Football World Cup
Jayden Collins