I want to talk about the football on Thursday Gareth Southgate announce the England squad that he’ll be taking to Qatar the men’s football World Cup is a week or so away and normally at this stage we’d be entirely focused on the squads the tactics the soap opera of it all not so much this time on Monday the former head of FIFA set blatter said that holding the World Cup in Qatar is a mistake the world cup with 32 teams is a big big organization which needs also a big country Qatar is too small to do that also on Tuesday a Qatari World Cup Ambassador described homosexuality as damage in the mind Qatar says everyone’s welcome at the World Cup but the farore has been growing this week and one question keeps coming up how did a country of three million people with summer temperatures above 45 degrees where homosexuality is illegal get the tournament Qatar has never qualified for a World Cup let alone hosted one but that would change in 2010 the winner to organize the 222 FIFA World Cup is Qatar that decision was taken by FIFA’s executive committee and in 2014 one of those who voted Michelle platini told the BBC why he chose Qatar can I decided that it’s time that we go in one part of the world they never receives the World Cup I am for that is my conviction that was one reason FIFA chose Qatar but there may have been others ahead of the vote two of the committee were excluded after a Sunday Times investigation alleged they’d offered to sell their votes something they denied the remaining members chose Qatar over the U.S which had been the favorite then in 2011 the Sunday Times reported that two other members of the committee had been paid one and a half million dollars each to vote for Qatar they denied it Days Later an email leaked and in it FIFA’s then General Secretary refers to qatar’s official on the voting committee he writes he thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the World Cup Sharon Falker would say afterwards that didn’t refer to bribes but by 2012 a FIFA inquiry was underway people focus on the winners right um but how did that process go and did anyone in that process violate the rules now that inquiry would conclude that the votes hadn’t been boards but it did find potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals as part of qatar’s bid and by this point it emerged the FBI had been investigating FIFA for years in response to a U.S request in 2015 Swiss police carried out these Dawn raids in Zurich where FIFA’s based the FBI declared that undisclosed and illegal payments Kickbacks and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA though that wasn’t a specific reference to Qatar getting the World Cup we do though know that 11 of the 22 committee members who took this decision have for various reasons been fine suspended banned or indicted since then two of them were convicted but not in connection to Qatar and 12 years on from the vote Qatar denies doing anything illegal or unethical but this week sepplatter had more to say about this a of course it was also about money he says that’s a reference to countries not individuals he hinted without evidence that a sale of French fighter jets two Qatar may have been eased by negotiations over the world cup bid that link has not been established nor is it uncommon for the awarding of large sporting events to have a political dimension but this is the man who ran FIFA at the time implying that the decision may have been connected to selling military hardware and we should also remember as the BBC sports editor Dan Rowan puts it that blatter’s time in charge of FIFA became defined by corruption and so while FIFA and Qatar continue to deny doing anything wrong the players are preparing to travel to the tournament and questions remain about why it’s being held in Qatar.
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