Apparently Fifa is corrupt and Qatar paid bribes, allegedly.

When two members of the FIFA executive committee were barred from voting on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts after a Sunday Times undercover investigation revealed bribe solicitation and rules violations, it seemed like it was only the tip of the FIFA corruption iceberg. And now, thanks to a few lingering sour grapes in England over their failed 2018 bid, we're learning that it really was just the tip.
Six more members of the 24-man FIFA executive committee have been implicated in a Parliamentary inquiry on evidence given by former FA chairman Lord Triesman and the Sunday Times. And among the allegations, there appears to be an answer to why Qatar was able to beat the U.S. by such a wide margin in the 2022 vote.

From the AP:
The Sunday Times sent further evidence—which it did not publish at the time for legal reasons—to the British committee on Monday to be made public using parliamentary privilege.
Two of the paper's investigative journalists told the committee in a letter that a whistleblower who had worked for the Qatari bid told them in December that the country "had paid $1.5 million to two FIFA ExCo members—Hayatou and Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast—to secure their votes."

It's kind of funny in an awful sort of way that Qatar (allegedly) used the U.S.'s own currency against them, rather than something more valuable like euros or Canadian dollars. But not nearly as funny/awful as the alleged bribe solicitations Triesman revealed...

He claimed that [Jack] Warner, a FIFA vice president and CONCACAF president from Trinidad and Tobago, asked for money—suggested to be 2.5 million pounds—to build an education center in Trinidad and for 500,000 pounds to buy Haiti's World Cup TV rights.
Triesman also said that [Nicolas] Leoz, of Paraguay, asked for an honorary knighthood, while [Worawi] Makudi of Thailand allegedly wanted to receive the money from English TV for them to broadcast a planned friendly against the country.
Triesman claimed that [Ricardo] Teixeira, a Brazilian, asked him to "come and tell me what you have got for me."

Well, Leoz asking for a knighthood is quite different from his own allegations that Prince William tried to bribe him with a wedding invite. Also, Teixeira's bribe solicitation is just plain creepy.

Triesman didn't just name the bad guys, though. He also gave his list of FIFA members who are "completely incorruptible." They are: Japan's Junji Ogura, Korea's Chung Mong-Joon, UEFA president Michel Platini, Turkey's Senes Erzik and, of course, England's Geoff Thompson.

In response to this fresh batch of horrors, Jack Warner, who has a few prior charges of corruption on his record, called Triesman's claims as a "piece of nonsense." Meanwhile, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is three weeks away from a re-election vote, said, "I cannot say they are all angels or they are all devils. We must have the evidence and then we will act immediately against all those (who) would be breach of the ethical code rules." In other words, there will likely be a few slaps on the wrist as FIFA continues to operate in the shadows, as usual.

UPDATE: Qatar released a statement denying allegations against them, saying that "we have nothing to hide and are prepared to support and cooperate with any further investigations."



I'm shocked, I always thought that FIFA had the highest and most stringent ethical standards.

It's seems that if you park the bus that gets you through in the Copa America, but if you attack then that sends you home. Paraguay didn't have a shot on target against Brazil but went through as Brazil missed all their penalties. Venezuela scored from both their attacks against Chile, at least it seemed like that, and Chile hit the post loads of times. Argentina were the better side against Uruguay but the Uruguayan goalie made some great saves and the Argentinian attackers got in each others way at the end or rather there wasn't enough width. Tevez would miss the penalty.

Japan won the Women's World Cup on penalties against USA. USA actually played pretty well but Japan kept going, took their chances and held their nerve a lot better in the shootout.

Uruguay beat Paraguay 3-0 for their 15th Copa win. They totally bossed the match and were a class above Paraguay, Suarez and Forlan both played very well but it was a very good team performance and a deserved win for Uruguay, not least because they drive the bus rather than park it.