Russia and Qatar face the prospect of losing their respective World Cup hosting rights if evidence of bribery and corruption implicates them. This warning was issued by FIFA’s independent chairman of audit and compliance committee, Domenico Scala.
“If evidence should emerge that the awards to Qatar and Russia only came about because they bought votes, then the awards could be invalidated…This evidence has not yet been brought forth,” he declared.
Scala delivered the warning on Sunday, June 7 even as former FIFA Vice President, Jack Warner has threatened to unleash an avalanche of incriminating records that could bring the top echelons of the world’s football governing body crashing. “I will no longer keep secrets for those who actively seek to destroy the country,” declared the ex-President of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are probing the bidding processes for both the 2018 and 2022 tournaments after a week of explosive revelations following the dawn raids of May 27 that saw dozen of FIFA top shots detained. Both Russia and Qatar have strenuously denied any wrongdoing but there are strong indications that both countries may not pass the litmus test.
Earlier, Qatari “whistleblower” Phaedra Almajid said the country will definitely lose the 2022 World Cup once all the facts about the bidding process are made clear. “There are people who are pissed off with me and what has really pissed them off is that I am a female Muslim whistleblower,” she said.
Almajid also declared that human rights abuses in Qatar are enough reasons to pull the plug on the country’s hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup: “The Qataris don’t care about human rights. There are human rights violations being made across Qatari society and they make promises to fix them – and they break every promise. The Qataris don’t keep their promises. They won’t keep promises on human rights,” she disclosed.
She went further: “As for FIFA, they talk of reform but the biggest reform they should make in the process around the World Cup is to introduce a human rights pillar. The World Cup should not be awarded to countries that don’t respect human rights.”
By Olisemeka Obeche
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