The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup

by Heidi Blake

  At dinner that evening, as Lunn, Bien-Aime and Sabir shared their sense of disquiet at the day’s events, an announcement came that the meeting the following morning was to be moved forward to 8.30am from the scheduled time of ten. They exchanged glances. What did this mean? After the meal, Bin Hammam made another short speech, asking for the delegates’ support. Then Warner escorted the Qatari and his entourage to the airport where their jet was ready for take-off.

  When the delegates filed back into the ballroom the next day, Warner was looking twitchy. He opened the meeting by asking whether any reporters were present. Having established that there were no interlopers in the room, he told the delegates sternly that he was disappointed to find out that some of them had squealed to their superiors about the cash envelopes. He had received calls from CONCACAF and from FIFA about the gifts, and it was a shame that the matter hadn’t been kept among friends. The money had really been a present from Mohamed bin Hammam, he told them, and it had been his idea to present it as a gift from the CFU. He said he had advised his Qatari friend to hang the formalities and simply give the Caribbean delegates the cash equivalent of whatever present he had in mind for them.

  ‘When Mohamed bin Hammam asked to come to the Caribbean, he wanted to bring some silver plaques and wooden trophies and bunting and so on, and told me to bring for thirty people would be too much luggage. I told him he did not need to bring anything, but if he wanted to bring anything to bring something equivalent to the value of the gift that he brought,’ Warner said.

  ‘I said to him if you bring cash, I don’t want you to give cash to anybody, but when you do you can give it to the CFU and the CFU will give it to its members. Because I don’t want to even remotely appear that anyone has any obligation to vote for you because of what gifts you have given them, and he fully accepted that.’

  If, for some unfathomable reason, any of the delegates didn’t want to keep the money, they should give it to someone else who did or hand it back, but above all they should keep quiet about it. ‘I know there are some people here who believe they are more pious than thou. If you are pious go to a church, friends, but the fact is that our business is our business,’ he said. ‘You can come in this room here and cuss and disagree and rave and rant, but when we leave here our business is our business, and that is what solidarity is about.’

  He went on: ‘If there is anybody here who has a conscience and wishes to send back the money, I am willing to take the money and give it back to him at any moment. But don’t go and talk of it outside and believe that you’re pious and you’re holy and you’re better than anybody else. I hope that’s very clear.’ There were nods and murmurs of assent around the room. Lunn looked over at Bien-Aime and sighed.

  Warner also counselled the delegates to brush off any allegations that might fly their way when they returned from the visit. ‘You will hear the president of Asia came here for your vote and he gave you, a Benz for you, a Benz for you and a Benz for you,’ he said. ‘You will hear of course that he came from Asia and gave you a barrel of oil. You will hear those things. You will hear he gave you a ship and I am asking you, when you go back home, because the media, everybody believes the worst thing possible. When you go back home, you hold your head high and you will tell your members that you were not part of this international nonsense.’

  Once the meeting had broken up and the delegates were heading for the airport, Warner finally returned Blazer’s call. The two men had been close conspirators for many years, but relations had recently become strained. Blazer was furious because he had seen Bin Hamman ticking off names in his notebook during the World Cup ballot and believed Warner had betrayed the USA and voted for Qatar. Nor did he like the fact that Warner had arranged an extraordinary congress of the CFU for Bin Hammam, and he had tried and failed to stand in his way. When Warner called to tell him that the Qatari had used the meeting to dish out wads of cash at his own suggestion, Blazer blew his lid. He told Warner he could think of no innocent explanation that he would be able to give for what he and Bin Hammam had done.

  The CONCACAF president was defiant. He said that if anyone wanted to ask questions about his actions, they were welcome to ring him. He had nothing to fear because, he said, he had told Sepp Blatter about the cash gifts in advance and the FIFA president had ‘no issue’ with the plan. The call concluded frostily.

  The rolling story about the allegations of Qatari World Cup bribes from the House of Commons was a wounding blow for Bin Hammam. The English FA withdrew its support for his candidacy, saying that it would not back either contender for the presidency until the claims had been properly investigated. The Qatar 2022 team furiously denied the allegations and sought to discredit Al-Majid as an unhinged and ‘embittered’ ex-employee.

  On 12 May, Blatter had a tense meeting with Sheikh Tamim, Qatar’s crown prince and now the president of its World Cup organising committee. The royal wanted to know whether his father’s World Cup dream was in jeopardy as his country’s bid fought off the volley of bribery allegations flying its way. Blatter was said to have reassured Sheikh Tamim of his support, but warned that Bin Hammam’s run for the FIFA presidency was adding to the heat around the decision to award the tournament to Qatar. It would be easy to defuse the tension if the country’s presidential pretender would only back off. The word was that Blatter hoped Bin Hammam would be forced to drop out after the hint he had apparently dropped with Sheikh Tamim. After more than a week had passed with Bin Hammam still in the race, the FIFA president started to sharpen his knife.

  On 21 May, Blatter raised the horrifying spectre of re-running the 2022 World Cup vote. He told the Independent that the notion of a re-vote was gathering a groundswell of popular support and ‘circulating already around the world’. The prospect was ‘alarming’, he said, but could not be ruled out. ‘Don’t ask me now yes or no [for a re-vote], let us go step by step,’ he said. This was Qatar’s greatest nightmare, and Blatter was dangling it on a thread before their eyes.

  Then, two days later, he was back to torment Bin Hammam further. The president piled in to capitalise on the scandal engulfing Qatar, promising to set out proposals to stamp out corruption within FIFA at the upcoming congress. ‘We have to make sure that immediately after the election that we rebuild the image of FIFA,’ he told the press. ‘We need to reinforce the judicial bodies and we shall find a solution how to handle the past in order that we can stop forever in the future all these damaging things about corruption.’

  Blatter also confirmed to journalists that day that he would like to see Michel Platini succeed him when he stood down in four years. The UEFA president had emerged as a kingmaker during the campaign as both candidates scrapped for support in Europe. Bin Hammam had promised that he would stand aside after just one term and let the Frenchman take the helm of world football if UEFA backed him. But Blatter would not be outdone, vowing that his next term would be his last and tipping Platini as a worthy successor.

  ‘I have decided to stand for my fourth and final term as president because in these uncertain times FIFA needs stability to secure all that we have achieved so far and to make essential changes to our beautiful game,’ he had said. UEFA had now swung its support behind Blatter, and Platini was rewarded. ‘I’m sure there are a lot of candidates for president, but Platini is exactly in this trajectory. I’m sure that Europe will make everything to maintain the presidency of FIFA,’ Blatter said.

  Then, the FIFA president added that he was ‘disappointed’ to hear that his challenger’s close friend, Amadou Diallo, had been named in the British parliament as the alleged ‘fixer’ of bribes paid by the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid. ‘It definitely disappoints me,’ the president said. ‘He was working for FIFA in the development programmes, he was in the Goal project with the candidate [Bin Hammam]. I knew him because he was around before we started with the Goal project, he was brought in by Bin Hammam. This is a question of character, so ask Diallo if he’s happy in his position, what he’s doing.�
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  Blatter rounded off by revealing with a flourish that he had once turned down a bribe when he was handed a cash-stuffed envelope during his days as secretary general. ‘I received once an envelope when I was secretary general and in this envelope there was an amount of money. I couldn’t refuse because he put it in my pocket. I came home here to FIFA and gave it to the finance director and he put this money on the account of the Swiss Bank Corporation at that time, and informed the guy “the money you gave to the secretary general is in that bank” and a few days later he reclaimed it. Then it was specifically known that, please, don’t try to give money to somebody who’s in FIFA.’ Blatter’s timing was as cute as ever.

  The weight of the scandal was bearing down heavily upon Mohamed bin Hammam and it seemed his presidential hopes were slipping away on the tide of public opprobrium, but he was determined to stay afloat the best way he knew how. The morning after Blatter’s pious speech to the press, the Qatari was busy arranging for a shipment of ‘gifts to be distributed at Zurich’ before the election. The package was to be sent ahead to the Renaissance Hotel in the Swiss city, ready to be handed out when the FIFA family arrived for its annual congress. Bin Hammam knew he was in choppy waters, but he was not prepared for the tidal wave of disgrace rearing up ahead.

  Two days after the CFU delegates had returned from Port of Spain, Blazer had called Jérôme Valcke to tell him what he had heard about the cash gifts Bin Hammam had offered. FIFA’s secretary general had asked him to provide a report on what had happened at the CFU’s extraordinary congress, so Blazer had instructed John Collins, a Chicago attorney and a member of FIFA’s legal committee, to take depositions from the Caribbean officials who had rejected the money.

  The report from the firm of Collins & Collins landed on Valcke’s desk on 24 May. It asserted baldly that: ‘On March 18, Mohamed Bin Hammam . . . announced his candidacy for president of FIFA. Soon thereafter, Mr Bin Hammam began a campaign to buy the votes needed to win the election.’ The appendix contained lengthy affidavits from Lunn, Sealey and Blazer himself, as well as the photograph of the cash Lunn had snapped on his iPhone, and copies of text messages, emails and memos about the débâcle. Collins had also interviewed Bien-Aime and Sabir, who had corroborated Lunn’s account, and the report included a précis of their evidence. It was a devastating package.

  FIFA’s secretary general sat down and penned a letter that spelled out Bin Hammam’s ruin. ‘On 24 May 2011, Mr Chuck Blazer, FIFA Executive Committee Member and CONCACAF General Secretary, represented by Collins & Collins, reported . . . that, during the course of a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union held on 10 and 11 May 2011, you allegedly committed several infringements of the FIFA regulations, in particular, but not limited to, acts of bribery,’ it read. ‘In view of the foregoing, we are herewith opening ethics proceedings against you.’

  Valcke’s letter spewed out of the presidential fax machine at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur the following day, when Bin Hammam was in Doha preparing to get on a plane to Zurich for the FIFA congress. Before he had seen the fax, FIFA released a statement to the media announcing that it was opening ethics proceedings against him and Warner, based on allegations of bribery submitted by Blazer. The story exploded onto the news bulletins and Bin Hammam’s inbox filled up with emails from journalists begging for his side of the story.

  When Valcke’s letter reached Bin Hammam, he read it and reeled. It wasn’t possible. What was Blazer thinking? He and Jack had been as thick as thieves for years. Some whispered that Blazer had been forced to knife his conspirator by the leaders of the US 2022 bid, who believed Warner had double-crossed them and voted for Qatar in the World Cup ballot. Others even claimed that Warner was in on the scheme to bring Bin Hammam down and had lured him into a trap by telling him to bring bundles of dollars rather than gifts to the Port of Spain. Whichever way you sliced it, people reckoned that Blatter had somehow wielded the knife. His pious remarks about turning down a cash-stuffed envelope appeared just a little too well timed, coming the day before Blazer’s depositions plopped through FIFA’s letterbox.

  Bin Hammam’s trio of female aides were aghast.

  ‘This time it really didn’t look good,’ Jenny Be commented glumly in a message to Michelle Chai. ‘Blazer is well prepared.’

  ‘The only thing now is, only those involved knows,’ replied Chai, who had been with Bin Hammam in Port of Spain. ‘Sometimes you can’t believe what you read or even hear. But hopefully there is god . . . and justice . . . reality seems to be so blurred now.’

  ‘Conspiracy theory abound,’ said Be. ‘The meeting in T&T is a set up . . . but there’s also a pouring of sympathies for boss now. All pointing fingers to Blatter pulling a dirty stunt.’

  The women agreed that if only Bin Hammam could clear his name before the election, all would be well again. But he had barely any time: he would be summoned to explain himself before FIFA’s ethics committee on 29 May – three days before the presidential ballot.

  Bin Hammam’s scheduled flight to Zurich had been cancelled to allow him to remain in Doha overnight for crisis talks. Late that evening, he issued a defiant statement. ‘This has been a difficult and painful day for me today. But, if there is even the slightest justice in the world, these allegations will vanish in the wind.’ Then he stepped onto the Emiri jet, which had been specially chartered by government officials to whisk him to Zurich at short notice. He landed at 1.30pm on 26 May, with just three days to go before he would have to appear before the FIFA ethics committee.

  Now the race was on for him and Warner to get their story straight. Bin Hammam headed straight for the offices of Stephan Netzle, the Zurich-based lawyer Hassan Al-Thawadi had picked out to assist with his presidential campaign. The Qatar 2022 chief couldn’t have chosen a better man for a job like this: Netzle responded to a crisis like a pitbull responds to a bloody bone. He set about drafting a dauntless statement for Bin Hammam to send to FIFA and planning the counterattack.

  That day, Bin Hammam issued another press release reiterating his rebuttal of the allegations, and this time dragging Sepp Blatter into the frame. He pointed out that Blazer’s deposition cited an assertion by Warner that ‘Blatter was informed of, but did not oppose, payments allegedly made to members of the Caribbean Football Union.’ If the FIFA president knew that the cash was going to be handed out, why didn’t he intervene to stop it? ‘Mr Bin Hammam has therefore requested that the investigation by the Ethics Committee be extended to include Mr Blatter himself,’ the release said. ‘It is no coincidence that these allegations have been made only a few days before the 61st FIFA Congress, at which the new FIFA president will be elected.’

  Warner sent the statement he had prepared for the ethics committee over for Netzle’s perusal the following morning of 27 May. He wrote to Najeeb Chirakal: ‘Hereunder is the final copy of my statement before sending to the FIFA. Pls let your lawyer review and advise within the next four hours.’ Netzle was satisfied with what Warner had written, and wrote back: ‘I have no amendment suggestions to that statement. It must be sent to FIFA within the next 30 Minutes!!!’

  The man from Trinidad flatly denied every single allegation against him in Blazer’s bundle of depositions point by point, and he railed against his accuser. He suggested that Blazer was unfairly punishing him and his long-time ally Bin Hammam for America’s loss to Qatar in the World Cup race. ‘Like the General Secretary, an American, employee of the CONCACAF, I voted for the USA against Qatar for the 2022 World Cup,’ he insisted. ‘Like the General Secretary . . . I am still very hurt over the loss of the USA to Qatar. But, unlike the General Secretary . . . I have no intention of conspiring with other Americans to impugn the character of President Mohammed [sic] bin Hammam for whom I have the highest regard.’

  Bin Hammam’s own statement, penned and signed by Netzle and also sent to Warner, made it clear he would fight with all his force to stay in the presidential race. The allegations, it said, were ‘complete
ly false’, and had been ‘submitted to discredit Mr Bin Hammam as a candidate for the upcoming elections to the FIFA presidency’. It went on: ‘Mr Bin Hammam expects the ethics committee to see through that paltry and phony manoeuvre and to restore Mr Bin Hammam’s honour and reputation as a person of integrity to pave the ground for a fair presidential procedure.’

  The statement said Bin Hammam had left Port of Spain on 10 May and had no idea what had happened at the extraordinary congress after that point. He certainly had no knowledge of any cash-stuffed envelopes. The Qatari had ‘always and strictly rejected the idea of “buying votes” either directly or indirectly and he never participated in such practices.’

  Netzle was good at striking a tone of moral outrage when the occasion demanded it. ‘The campaign of Mr Bin Hammam is based on the principles of integrity and transparency,’ the statement said. ‘He has consistently announced that all efforts must be undertaken to restore the reputation of FIFA, to fight corruption and bribery. It is a negative surprise that this argument is now used against him with the obvious goal of preventing him from fulfilling his mission.’

  The same day both statements were submitted, FIFA announced that Bin Hammam had got his wish, and the ethics committee had placed Blatter under investigation, too. The FIFA president would be called upon to explain whether he had known that the cash was to be dished out in Port of Spain, and if so why he hadn’t intervened to stop it. Bin Hammam had no intention of going down without a bloody battle, and if he did he would try to bring the whole house down with him.