The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup

by Heidi Blake

  ‘Good,’ said Netzle.

  ‘If the contrary happens, I would like to know that,’ said Damaseb, who had learned a thing or two about working for FIFA by now. ‘Whatever decision that is taken affecting you and your client must be informed to you before anybody knows. If the contrary happens, I’ll be very surprised and in fact angry.’

  ‘Yes,’ the lawyer said gratefully. ‘We don’t want to learn your decision from the media.’

  ‘No. That’s not how I function,’ the judge replied.

  And then it was all over. Bin Hammam left the room in a daze, just 55 minutes after he had entered. He and Netzle exited the building swiftly and directed the chauffeur back to the lawyer’s office on Falkenstrasse, by the mouth of Lake Zurich, to await news of the decision that afternoon.

  Finally, the most powerful man in world football strolled into the committee room, and took his seat alone before the ethics men. He graced the panel with an indulgent beam.

  ‘Welcome, President Blatter,’ said Damaseb. ‘Everybody before you was accompanied. I assume you are unaccompanied – you are alone?’ The accused nodded nobly.

  ‘Chairman . . . yes, I am alone.’

  ‘Thank you very much, sir. President Blatter, as you are aware . . . The circumstances under which we convene relate to, as you know, the forthcoming elections for the presidency of FIFA and the allegations that have been made around that. The reason you are present here is that Mr Bin Hammam, who is in his own right an accused, has asked that a case be opened against you and that was referred to the ethics committee.’

  Damaseb introduced the panel. He explained: ‘Allegations have been made by Mr Bin Hammam that, in seven of the documents that have been brought against him in the context of the inquiry against him, an allegation was made that it had been reported to you by Mr Jack Warner that certain payments were going to be made by Mr Bin Hammam to national associations and that, to the extent that it is alleged that you are aware of those payments, you are under a duty to disclose that fact. That is the basis for the allegation.’ If this was true, Blatter would be guilty of article fourteen of the FIFA code of ethics, which requires all officials to report ‘any evidence of violations of conduct to the FIFA secretary general’.

  Blatter licked his lips, and began. ‘Thank you Chairman, thank you gentlemen, lady, around this table. I have listened carefully to the introductory remarks and the accusation that has been brought towards me.’ The FIFA president said he had met Warner on 10 April in Guatemala, and had been informed of the plan to hand out cash to delegates at a special meeting of the CFU. But Blatter said he had put his foot down.

  ‘When he was speaking the aspect of money I told him . . . don’t speak about that. Then, for me, the situation was closed. My message has been given very clearly and when I am looking on this article fourteen, then I should report if any evidence was there. There was not evidence because this was a declaration of Mr Warner and I thought that he will understand my message. It is only when I came back the other day from travel from Japan, on the twenty-third of May, that I was informed by the secretary general that he has received some evidences. So, between the time I spoke with Mr Warner in April and this time there, I personally had no evidence that something had happened and I was of the opinion that Mr Warner would have understood my very clear message. First to not organise this special meeting and secondly to not speak about money.’

  ‘When he talked about the money, did he give some indication about amounts or what they would be for, or anything of that nature?’ Blatter was asked.

  ‘No, he has only mentioned what I put there. It would be good for some of the associations. I told him, stop speaking about money, but he didn’t speak about any amount or the number or whatever.’

  ‘Did he mention where the money was coming from? Did he mention Mohammed bin Hammam being the supplier of this money?’ Les Murray enquired.

  Blatter said no. ‘We didn’t speak about . . . from who the money was coming.’

  Sondre Kaafjord had a question: ‘Did you ever, after that meeting on the tenth of April, discuss this matter or mention Warner’s intention to Mr Chuck Blazer?’

  Blatter said he had. ‘I think I spoke with Mr Blazer before this meeting because he told me that the northern part and the central part of the CONCACAF is against this meeting. So it was before I met Mr Warner.’

  And then the questioning was over. ‘President Blatter,’ said Damaseb. ‘Anything you want to say in conclusion at this point in time in your defence?’ Blatter seized the opportunity eagerly to remind the men on the panel that they owed their jobs to him. It was he, after all, who had introduced the ethics committee to FIFA, in the first place. None of this would have been possible without his vision and leadership.

  ‘Yes, I have a lot to say in my defence in such a case. I have to tell you, Mr Chairman, if I am happy to be once with the ethics committee, I didn’t know that I shall be here as an accused. I present my defence, but I have to say it’s a sad day. It is a sad day for me to be here but it’s a happy day that I can defend myself in front of you. So I’m happy to be here, I’m honoured to be in a constitutional committee that I have had the initiative to put in FIFA after having served so many years in FIFA and having seen that we are not able to go on what happened outside of the field of play . . . That’s why, in 2006, in the congress of Munich we have installed the FIFA ethics committee with the FIFA Code of Ethics.’

  That wasn’t all. Not only was Blatter the sole reason that the ethics committee existed at all – when he was re-elected he planned to continue his good works to make FIFA a better, cleaner organisation. Not only that: one of his main proposals was taken from the lips of the wise men before him themselves. ‘Mr Chairman it’s not my defence but I tell you at the congress – on the forthcoming congress I have on the agenda, and this is since two months, zero tolerance. Zero tolerance was, by your committee you said zero tolerance. I take it off from you, I put it on the agenda and this will be one of the key points of the next congress. For my defence I don’t say more than what is the truth. I had no evidence what I am accused. Why should I have had a problem? If there is a problem somewhere I am the number one to go into these problems. Here, for me, there was not a problem because the problem had been created by the other parties.’

  He rounded off with a bit of well-timed flattery. ‘Thank you for your dedication for the good of the game . . . I congratulate you, I thank you what you are doing. Thank you for your attention Mr Chairman, members of the committee.’

  Damaseb thanked him for his kind words, and asked: ‘Have we treated you fairly, are you unhappy with the way in which anything has transpired here this afternoon, sir?’ Blatter couldn’t have been more delighted with the conduct of his committee.

  ‘Definitely, Chairman. You and the committee members, you treated me fairly. This is exactly what we want. It is respect; it is discipline and fair play. Thank you so much.’ And how would the ethics committee be able to reach Blatter to communicate their decision to him later that day?

  ‘I am in my office, I am working,’ he said.

  ‘I would like to thank you for your cooperation in coming,’ said Damaseb. ‘As I have done with others, of course given your pivotal position in the organisation and a senior official of FIFA, we assume that you will continue to provide your cooperation to the committee with its continuing investigation of this matter?’

  ‘Definitely, yes,’ said the president. ‘You can count on one hundred per cent of this zero tolerance, definitely. I thank you for your help.’

  ‘Thank you, Mr President,’ the ethics judge said. ‘You are excused now.’

  It took next to no time for the men on the ethics committee to reach their decision once the hearings were over. Damaseb saw things clearly: the meeting in the Caribbean had been arranged for the sole purpose of enabling Bin Hammam to promote his candidacy; the photographs proved that bundles of dollars had been dished out to the delegates, and the CFU plainly
didn’t have the funds to hand out cash gifts totalling more than $1 million. On the face of it, they thought there was little room for doubt that the Qatari billionaire had been trying to bribe voters in the presidential election, with help from his friend Jack.

  Warner was clearly up to his neck in the mucky business, with multiple witnesses giving consistent accounts of his role in the scheme. When it came to Blatter, though, the panel agreed that his evidence had been exemplary. There was no reason to believe that the president had condoned Warner’s plan to help bribe the members of his association at the midnight meeting in Guatemala. Warner said he and Blatter had never discussed any such thing; the president said he had been told about the plan but had instructed his errant official to desist from paying bribes. There was every reason to believe the latter account, they agreed. So, they decided, the prima facie case against Bin Hammam and Warner was clear, and the two men would be suspended. Blatter survived unscathed.

  Bin Hammam was waiting in Netzle’s office with small cluster of aides around him when the fax from FIFA headquarters began sputtering out of the machine. He was characteristically calm. His closest confidants knew he feared nothing from the ethics committee after the meeting he described with Blatter and his royal masters the previous day. He had kept to his side of the bargain by pulling out of the presidential race, and in return the trumped-up charges Blazer had orchestrated would be dropped. ‘If there is no candidate, there is no case.’ That was what Blatter had said. So Bin Hammam was serene as Netzle tore off the strip of fax paper and glanced down at the words on the page. The lawyer pursed his lips and nodded gravely. Then he handed the sheet to his client.

  When Bin Hammam began to read, his face contorted in consternation. He sat down heavily and continued scanning the page. The committee had found against him. A full-blown investigation would follow. And then, the terrible words: ‘The official Mohamed bin Hammam is hereby provisionally banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national or international level . . .. until the FIFA ethics committee will reach a decision in the merits of this matter.’

  This wasn’t the deal! Blatter had double-crossed him again! How could he have been so stupid as to trust him to be true to his word? The aides were furious. How dare Blatter screw Mohamed like this? How could the royals have allowed it to happen? Bin Hammam quickly recovered his poise, reassuring them that it was not over, and he would keep striving to clear his name. Netzle would begin putting together the appeal at once. But the accused man knew he had thrown away all his bargaining chips, and now Blatter was in the clear and sailing towards re-election unopposed. The cold hand of fear was closing around his heart.

  At 6pm sharp, Damaseb emerged to address a packed press conference alongside Jérôme Valcke. The air crackled with anticipation. FIFA’s day of reckoning had dominated the headlines and bulletins all day, with broadcasters and live-bloggers struggling to feed the beast of 24-hour news with what scraps they could glean as the hearings progressed in secret on the hilltop. The reporters were champing at the bit, desperate for something substantial to report to follow all the filler they had churned out manfully in anticipation of this moment.

  The judge infuriated the journalists further by spending 20 soporific minutes explaining the procedures of the ethics committee without reference to the fate of the three accused men. Eventually, he cut to the chase. With regards to the allegations against Bin Hammam and Warner, Damaseb said: ‘We are satisfied that there is a case to answer. There is going to be a full inquiry.’ Two of FIFA’s most powerful men, together controlling the game across all of Asia and the Americas, were to be suspended while the bribery allegations were properly probed. The announcement exploded like a mushroom cloud billowing skyward from the FIFA hilltop. Twitter lit up instantly and within minutes the breaking story about the suspensions was flashing up on every TV bulletin and newswire.

  Damaseb concluded by dismissing the charges against Blatter. He told the press conference that he accepted the president’s evidence that he had told Warner not to hand out cash in Port of Spain. ‘No investigation against Blatter is warranted,’ the judge said. As for the other two, their final fate would be known some time in late June or July. Then, the ethics judge handed over to Valcke, who confirmed that the presidential election would go ahead as planned on 1 June. The room filled with angry murmurs.

  ‘Surely FIFA must postpone this election?’ a British journalist called out.

  ‘Why?’ Valcke shot back. ‘The allegation against Blatter has been cleared by the committee. Why should we postpone the election?’

  Soon after the press conference wrapped up, FIFA released a statement making its position plain: ‘The Ethics Committee considered that a provisional suspension was required while the investigation continues, taking into account the gravity of the case and the likelihood that a breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics and the FIFA Disciplinary Code has been committed. Regarding the proceedings opened against FIFA president Joseph Blatter, at the request of Mohamed bin Hammam, for a potential breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics – all charges were dismissed in full. The Ethics Committee found that no breach of the Code of Ethics had been committed and they will meet again in due course in order to take a final decision on the matter after gathering more information and evidence on the cases.’

  Bin Hammam watched in horror as his dreadful fate unfolded. It was as if his whole world was crumbling around him. Things were about to get much worse. Jack Warner was on the warpath, and he was ready to unleash the ‘tsunami’ of scandal he had threatened before the hearing, even if it engulfed his friend Bin Hammam. In the early hours of the following morning, Warner sent Najeeb Chirakal an email containing a statement he was about to release to the world.

  ‘I have learned this evening via the media that I have been provisionally suspended by the FIFA ethics committee. This has come both as a shock and surprise to me,’ he raged. ‘At the conclusion of the enquiry I specifically requested that I be notified of any decision as I had learned via the media before attending the hearing that a decision would be handed down at 5.00pm. Despite leaving my contact details, up to this point, I still have not received any notification from the FIFA.’ The statement continued with a rambling diatribe against the ethics committee, who he said had treated him unfairly in every possible way.

  It was at the end that Warner dropped his bombshell. He revealed a private email exchange with Jérôme Valcke, in which the FIFA secretary general had given a devastating assessment of Bin Hammam, and Qatar’s World Cup campaign. ‘On May 18 when I realised that the political battle between Blatter and Bin Hammam was getting out of hand I wrote Secretary General Valcke,’ Warner had written, ‘telling him, among other things, that the outcome of the elections may cause some fracture in the Arab world which we can ill afford now and that I will like to ask Bin Hammam to withdraw from the race.’ Then came Valcke’s response.

  ‘For MBH, I never understood why he was running. If really he thought he had a chance or just being an extreme way to express how much he does not like anymore JSB. Or he thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC.’

  Those few short lines were to cause mayhem. The secretary general of FIFA had accused Qatar, and Bin Hammam, of buying the 2022 World Cup. Warner’s statement concluded ominously: ‘I intend to say a lot more on this matter shortly. In the meantime, I will vigorously defend my reputation as well as the reputation of the rest of the Caribbean members.’

  Valcke’s incendiary email shattered FIFA’s attempt to screen off the corruption scandal ahead of the presidential election. The proof that the secretary general privately believed Qatar had ‘bought’ the World Cup had all the hallmarks of a smoking gun. Coming in the wake of the bribery allegations from the House of Commons and the downfall of the country’s most senior football official in a blizzard of brown envelopes, this looked like an obvious prima facie case for scrutiny by the ethics committee.

  When Blatter announced a surprise pre
ss conference the following day, the assembled journalists were certain a big announcement was coming. Surely the plan for a 2022 World Cup in Qatar could not sail blithely on with such grave allegations swirling? Blatter himself had mooted a re-vote only days before. Wouldn’t the tournament at least have to be suspended while the matter was investigated? Paul Kelso, the Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer, tweeted a ‘hunch’ about what was to come. ‘The 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar. See me in 2021 if I’m wrong,’ he wrote a few moments before the press conference began.

  The journalists piled back into the auditorium, and their editors were poised for another newsflash from Zurich. They saw that a single podium had been placed at the front. Jérôme Valcke was the first figure to emerge, striding in alone. The secretary general faced the press pack and explained gruffly that he just wanted to straighten out a few little things about his email to Jack Warner before Sepp Blatter came in to address them.

  ‘I’d like to clarify, I may use in an email a lighter way of expression by nature,’ he began. ‘A much less formal tone.’

  ‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ one journalist muttered. Valcke continued.

  ‘Having said that, when I refer to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in that email, what I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support. They were a candidate with a very important budget and have used it to heavily promote their bid all around the world in a very efficient manner. I have at no time made, or was intending to make, any reference to any purchase of votes or similar unethical behaviour.’ The journalists exchanged incredulous glances. Sometimes, FIFA’s fancy footwork when dodging a scandal was a wonder to behold.

  The secretary general disappeared and the journalists were left to wait for Blatter’s appearance. More than 15 minutes passed, with the suspense heightening with every second. ‘Genuine anticipation here,’ Paul Kelso tweeted. ‘Don’t think anyone in this room is certain what Blatter is going to do or say. Stick, twist or fold?’ While the journalists were waiting impatiently, their smartphones began to ping with an email sent out by the Qatar 2022 bid team. ‘Mr Valcke’s statement was clearly taken out of context but again Qatar’s name has been dragged through the mud,’ it said. All wrongdoing was categorically denied, and the bid leaders were outraged that their reputation had been so besmirched.