2022 WC Qatar bid manipulated, France Football claims to have proof

The 2022 World Cup venue bid, which was won Qatar, has been put in to question by a story brought out by France Football which claims to have unearthed clear evidence that proves the bidding process was rigged to favour Qatar.

One of the passages from an article, titled ‘Should the 2022 World Cup be reassigned?‘, posted on their site reads as follows:

“France Football has conducted an investigation on the appointment, without any apparent logic, of Qatar as the host country of the World 2022 , made twelve years before the competition.”

“The result is instructive. Between acts of collusion and corruption that FF identifies in (our Tuesday edition), the designation has an odour of scandal that forces us to ask the only question that matters: should the 2022 World Cup vote be cancelled?”

France Football claims that during the bidding procedures in December 2010, Qatar bought the votes of FIFA executives in an attempt to win the bid. Inspite of strong competition from countries like the USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia, it was Qatar that was awarded the bid, a verdict that raised many eyebrows.

France Football also claims that $1.5 million was given to both Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma from the African Football Confederation (CAF) for buying their votes. Futhermore, $1.25 million was spent to buy the four votes from FIFA’s African executives.

It also mentions that UEFA president Michel Platini had been asked by the then-French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to support Qatar’s bid for “geopolitical reasons.”

Although the allegations are unproven as of now, France Football is holding on to what they believe is the real truth behind Qatar’s winning bid, and have submitted their findings to FIFA.