The Business of the FIFA controversy

The Business of the FIFA controversy

Kipp takes a look at the multi-layered scandal that has rocked the world of FIFA in the last couple of weeks.

June 5, 2011 4:57 by p.deleon

As the Qatar’s 2022 bid team released a statement saying they “categorically deny any wrongdoing in connection with their winning bid,” so did Jerome Valacke; who claimed when he said Qatar ‘bought’ the World Cup what he really intended to say was: “When I refer to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support.”

On a side line to the controversy, there are the allegations that Bin Hammam offered close to $100,000 for fellow FIFA members to buy votes for his run for the FIFA presidency. Things were further complicated by a leaked picture which shows four stacks of money allegedly offered to Caribeean football official. In a rather, ahem, subtle touch, the alleged envelope has a “Bahamas” casually written across it. The envelope supposedly contained four stacks of $10,000. Apparently the money had been presented to the officials on May 10^th at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Trinidad, where members of the Caribbean Football Union had been invited to listen to a talk by Bin Hamam, who by the way, picked up the tickets and expenses of the officials for the trip. After the talk, the attendees were asked to come to a special conference room to pick up a gift-wrapped in a brown envelope.

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