International Football
WORLD CUP VOTING SCANDAL REIGNITED AS BOOK CLAIMS FIFA MADE SECRET $100M DEAL WITH QATARI TV COMPANY
The controversy over the award of hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup has again come up. Daily Mail of the United Kingdom reports that more than seven years after the votes, there are revelations that Qatar’s state TV company agreed a $100million payment to FIFA if they got the 2022 finals.
According to the newspaper, the claims are made in a new book by a whistleblower from inside Australia’s failed 2022 bid, Bonita Mersiades, who has spent years investigating the saga and conducted a recent confessional interview with former FIFA president Sepp Blatter about the process.
Among other new revelations, Blatter claims in the book that:
- German legend Franz Beckenbauer, who publicly supported Australia’s bid, would not have done so unless he was paid — in breach of the rules;
- Blatter knew before the vote for 2022 was even conducted that Qatar would win and favourites USA would lose out;
- He was so certain of it that he personally called American president Barack Obama in the days before the vote to tell him the US would lose.
Blatter says he knew Qatar would win because Michel Platini told him that he and multiple others on the 22-man voting ExCo panel were going to back the tiny state on the Arabian Peninsula. Blatter was subsequently dismayed with Qatar’s win and wanted them stripped of the tournament but says he did a deal — twice — to stop that happening, in exchange for Qatar’s Emir guarantee that Blatter would not face a 2011 FIFA presidential challenge from Qatar’s ExCo member Mohamed bin Hammam.
Blatter also describes the circumstances of the deals, one made in Doha in late 2010 and one in his FIFA office in Zurich in 2011.
The book says that in the months before the vote in December 2010 — with FIFA executives privately worried that a Qatar win would leave a financial shortfall for coffers in 2022 — broadcaster Al Jazeera (now beIN Sports) agreed the secret deal to pay $100m if Qatar won the vote, which subsequently happened. When asked about the payment by The Mail on Sunday this week, the broadcaster did not dispute it but characterised the bonus as ‘production contributions’ that are ‘standard market practice and are often imposed upon broadcasters by sports federations and sports rights holders’.
Beckenbauer, 72, is arguably Germany’s foremost footballing hero having won the World Cup for his country as a player and captain (1974), manager (1990) and tournament bid leader (2006).
In the book, Blatter is reported as claiming Beckenbauer would have received money for working for Australia’s bid team, a huge conflict of interest and forbidden by bidding rules given that he was on the 22-man ExCo voting committee. Beckenbauer was banned by FIFA for 90 days in 2014 for failing to co-operate with lawyer Michael Garcia’s inquiry into the 2018-2022 process, and when he did later co-operate, he gave evidence that Garcia concluded was unreliable and contradicted other evidence.
Separately, Beckenbauer has been subject to an ongoing investigation around alleged bidding irregularities around the 2006 World Cup.
Mersiades explains how Australia’s three ‘international bid consultants’ were paid around £9m out of a public purse budget of around £30m for services that remain sketchy. One of those consultants was Beckenbauer’s friend and business partner, Fedor Radmann, who also declined to cooperate with Garcia. Radmann earned about £2m from Australia.
Blatter told Mersiades: ‘No doubt Radmann had some scheme going. I know he [Radmann] got a lot of money, and Franz wouldn’t do what he did for Australia for nothing.’
Blatter claims that in the end, Australia’s sole vote before they crashed out actually came from him, not Beckenbauer, who has always declined to say who he voted for. Beckenbauer has not responded to questions about the issue submitted to him via his representatives.
Garcia said in his report: ‘Devices employed by the bid team and its consultants were seemingly aimed at hiding ties with Mr Radmann, while taking advantage of his influence over Mr Beckenbauer to further the bid strategy.’
The deal over the $100m bonus from Al Jazeera was agreed, the book says, with the involvement and knowledge of Jérôme Valcke, secretary general of FIFA at the time but later banned for nine years from football for corruption.
The book says: ‘Valcke’s concerns about revenue growth in relation to Qatar were assuaged when negotiations commenced in October 2010 for a bonus payment of US $100m to FIFA from Al Jazeera if Qatar won 2022. There was no way he could turn it down. According to former FIFA staff, Valcke’s share was generally five per cent for negotiating the deal.’
Mersiades asked Blatter about this bonus and he says: ‘Sponsors and broadcasters pay bonuses all the time. That is not unusual.’
When pushed to clarify that a $100m bonus was ‘normal’, Blatter shrugged.
A spokesman for beIN said: ‘There is clearly a significant uplift in interest and additional revenues to a broadcaster and significant additional local production costs to a rights holder when a major sports event is awarded in a broadcaster’s domestic market. The relevant media agreements were stand alone from any bid, and were in no way intended to influence the outcome of the vote.’
The book will be launched at a reception at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, hosted by football governance reform advocates including MP Damian Collins.
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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