Michel Platini Implicated in Qatar World Cup 2022 Bid Scandal
Oladunjoye Opeyemi
The President of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Michel Platini is under pressure to explain the secret meeting he had with corrupt World Cup 2022 bid chief, Mohamed Bin Hammam.
Platini, a former leading French international and one of the most powerful men in world football, was on Monday night, implicated after international tabloid, The Telegraph, unearthed evidence that the UEFA president had a private discussion with Bin Hammam, the controversial Qatari who paid millions of pounds to football officials around the world to secure Qatar a successful 2022 World Cup bid.
The emergence of the meeting makes France the first European nation to be drawn into the World Cup bribery scandal, which has so far been limited to African and Caribbean countries. It is understood that the meeting took place shortly before FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, and that Bin Hammam personally lobbied Mr Platini to support the Emirate’s bid.
FIFA executive committee members vote in secret, but Platini has disclosed that he voted for Qatar in the ballot, which was held in 2010. He has also supported the proposal to move the tournament to the winter to avoid Qatar’s summer heat.
Australia and the United States, which lost out to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, indicated on Monday that they might resubmit their bids. There has also been suggestion that England’s hopes of hosting the 2018 tournament, which was awarded to Russia, could be revived because the voting process for both tournaments is under review as the decisions over both World Cups were made on the same day.
Leaked documents also show that Bin Hammam discussed trade deals with many of the officials and countries who were eligible to vote in the decision in 2010, including a gas deal in Thailand. He also offered car dealerships to Fifa members and discussed internships and jobs for family members of some FIFA members.
There are also claims over the weekend that Mr Bin Hammam distributed £3 million in bribes to FIFA delegates.
