Strasbourg, 24/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The decision to assign the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was so “radically flawed” by illegal payments that FIFA should hold a new vote under cleaned-up procedures, said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday 23 April.
In rejecting, by 25 votes to 16, with 7 abstentions, the referral back to committee of the report by British Socialist Michael Connarty on the reform of football governance, PACE, at the same time, called on Qatar to respect the basic rights of foreign migrant workers and urged FIFA to encourage this process. It also addressed recommendations for improving transparency and governance to FIFA, UEFA and other sports organisations.
The report follows on from the revelations by two Sunday Times journalists last spring. At a press conference, Connarty said he had met the two journalists in London and had been able to examine thousands of documents on which they had based their allegations that Qatari Vice-President Mohammed bin Hammam had paid some $5 million to more than 30 senior representatives of African football or to national associations to encourage support for the Qatari bid to host the World Cup and influence the votes of the four representatives on the executive committee. “The evidence of illegal payments is unequivocal”, in his view. (Véronique Leblanc)