by Heidi Blake
A southeasterly swoop and, on a riverside rooftop in the bustling metropolis of Bangkok, Worawi Makudi and his chief confidant Joe Sim are sipping short drinks at a well-stocked bar and contingency planning. Thailand’s executive committee member survived the furore over his role in Qatar’s collusion deal with the Iberian bid and then the scandal in Port of Spain without a scratch but, unsettlingly, FIFA’s investigators have suddenly started digging around in his business four years later. Makudi’s nerves took a knock when he opened Michael Garcia’s letter informing him that his activities before the World Cup vote were under investigation back in November 2014. But his equilibrium was somewhat restored when the investigator abruptly resigned a month later, leaving a big question mark over his ongoing inquiries. Who knew what would happen to Garcia’s caseload now he had shipped off to New York, where he belonged? His Swiss deputy Cornel Borbély had since stepped into the breach but, whatever happened, Sim assured Makudi, they would duck and dive their way through it like they always had.
Across the Bay of Bengal, Manilal Fernando sits on the veranda at home in Colombo with his eldest son and his little team of bespectacled lawyers, sharing a bottle of chilled white wine as the insects hiss in the hot night air. He has taken his appeal against his eight-year ban from world football all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and now the hearings are finished and the team are awaiting the outcome. His ascent to the FIFA executive committee was the realisation of a lifetime’s ambition for the friendly Sri Lankan hustler, but sadly it lasted only two years before he was brought down in the collapse of Bin Hammam’s Asian empire. Despite all the assiduous shredding by Jenny Be and Victoria Shanti, those meddling FIFA investigators found all sorts of unfortunate pieces of paper when they stormed into Kuala Lumpur looking for trouble after Bin Hammam’s ban, and they threw the book at Fernando for the cash he doled out to help his friend hang on to power in the AFC elections. He likes to keep his lawyers close these days. They travel with him, dine with him and drink with him. He is as sociable as ever and, though he is busy fighting to clear his name, he is one of the few friends from FIFA who still visits Bin Hammam in the majlis, when he can find the time.
The sand atoms in the sirocco winds which gust across the Mediterranean from the Arabian desert drizzle down over Europe like a gentle mist. The sea-moistened clouds blow in over the plains of the Sierra de Guadarrama, where Ángel María Villar Llona maintains his stand-off with FIFA’s ethics men. From his offices in the Spanish football association’s sprawling Ciudad del Futbol campus by the foothills of the mountains outside Madrid, the co-architect of the Iberian-Qatari collusion pact has steadfastly refused to cooperate with the World Cup corruption investigation. He scorned Garcia and Flynn as American interlopers with no business intruding into the private grief of the FIFA family and wilfully flouted his obligation to be interviewed and hand over any information they requested. Garcia’s last act before resigning was to launch a fresh investigation into Villar Llona’s failure to cooperate with the first one. Gazing out across the playing fields where his country’s future football superstars are perfecting their game in the blue evening light, the Spaniard wonders whether he ought to be more helpful this time.
Now the warm fog is rolling in over the quaint medieval Belgian town of Bruges, where Michel D’Hooghe is rooting around in his attic. Up here, along with all his football gifts, photographs and trinkets, is that landscape painting wrapped in brown paper that his friend Vyacheslav Koloskov gave him when he was garnering votes for Russia 2018. The dreaded painting had caused so much fuss, but thankfully FIFA’s investigators had accepted it was worthless. He was in the clear now and could go back to playing his accordion with peace of mind.
Not far to the east, in Germany, Franz Beckenbauer is also feeling the heat. When Garcia first sent Der Kaiser a long list of questions about his relationship with the lobbyists Fedor Radmann and Andreas Abold, he had thought it best to dodge the issue by telling the investigator he did not speak good enough English to respond. That excuse had not cut much ice and Beckenbauer was temporarily banned from world football until he agreed to cooperate. He had done his best to answer the questions before Garcia submitted his World Cup report to Judge Eckert, but it had been to no avail. Beckenbauer’s heart sank when he received the letter in November telling him he was under individual investigation for his role in the World Cup vote. He hoped he would come out of it clean. This grubby business was no way to end a glittering career.
The Russians had an altogether neater way of dealing with FIFA’s investigators. First they used a diplomatic spat with the US to ban Garcia from entering the country. Then, when his Swiss deputy Cornel Borbély showed up instead, they regretfully informed him that all their computers had been destroyed and they had no records to show for their campaign. The bid was given a clean bill of health by Garcia on the basis of no evidence, and its chairman, Vitaly Mutko, still has his feet comfortably under FIFA’s boardroom table.
In Nyon, Michel Platini takes a drag on his cigarette and knocks back another half-glass of robust red. It is wearing work, trying to calm the growing tumult within European football over the chaos caused by the Qatar World Cup decision. He sees how the continent’s football bosses look at him askance since he did the decent thing and confessed that he had voted for Qatar. He knows some of them will never forgive him for sending the tournament to the desert, and they are even more furious now they know that the event will have to be moved to the winter, causing catastrophic disruption across their leagues. There is open revolt now, across much of Europe, and Platini is struggling to steady the buffs. He could not quite find the mettle to challenge Blatter for the FIFA presidency, but such was the disquiet in UEFA that he has steeled himself and called publicly for the old man to step aside.
A storm is blowing in towards the FIFA hilltop as Sepp Blatter sits in his den, oblivious to the first light taps of rain on the dark pane. He is hunched forward over his desk squinting at the screen with a fond smile, winding back and re-watching his favourite movie scene of all time. Two men are on a small boat floating on the waters of a vast lake under a brooding sky. The mood is tense. If this were a mafia movie, someone would be about to get shot and pushed overboard. But this isn’t Godfather II – it’s a film about the FIFA family! Now shhh – it’s about to get to his favourite bit. Tim Roth, playing Blatter with all the dignity he can muster, turns to Sam Neill, in the role of his mentor João Havelange. The former president has just offered a veiled apology for all the mess left behind for his protégé to clean up after his years of bribery, corruption and nepotism. The young Blatter throws him a magnanimous smile. They are both men of the world, after all.
‘I knew I wasn’t joining the chess club,’ he says, with a macho shrug.
Blatter sits back delighted by his big line. Such grace! Such elegance! Such loyalty to the family. If you ask him, United Passions is a masterpiece, and worth every cent of the $27 million he took from FIFA funds to pay for it. Okay, so it grossed only $200,000 at the box office, but since when was football administration expected to be popular? It’s a lonely life, up here on the hilltop. Nobody knows what he suffers for his love of this office. When he travels to matches in almost any city in the world, there is such hatred to contend with. Sure, he flies in first-class and stays in the best hotels known to humanity, but it’s not easy being greeted with deafening boos on all sides of the stadium. He is an old man now, at 78. He is less sure-footed than he used to be. More doddery, some might say. They are whispering in the corridors that he’s losing his grip. His daughter, Corinne, wants him to stand aside for the sake of his health, but he won’t hear of it.
Then the phone rings, and it’s yet another European football president telling him to resign. There’s pandemonium in the European leagues over the prospect of a winter World Cup and an angry army of human rights do-gooders is advancing on Zurich, demanding action to save the migrant workers dying by the dozen in Qatar. Now that damned investigat
or has made a spectacle of himself by disowning FIFA’s summary of his work and resigning, and the baying mob is demanding the publication of his full report. The calls for a re-vote grow louder every day. Worse, the sponsors are deserting FIFA one by one, taking their multi-million-dollar contracts with them. Yes, it’s lonely being in charge, up on the hill. Even when dark falls, he’s still here, in the office, holding on. The FIFA ship needs a firm hand on the tiller to steer its course through another storm, and Blatter won’t let go. The rain is lashing down now and the winds are raging at the window. But he is safe and warm within the impenetrable shell of his Zurich bunker. There’s no good in going outside in such filthy conditions. He draws the blinds and clicks rewind, one more time.
Back in Doha, night has fallen and the wind has subsided. Bin Hammam remains at the window, deep in thought, imagining the distant world he left behind. The servant has lit the lamps and the coffee is on the table. The scent of cardamom steam snaps him back to his senses and when he looks up the city outside is black with shadow and there are no stars. The only image in the window is his own reflection, and he turns away from it. He has seen the ugly face of the game. Now, perhaps, it is time to forget.
The Ugly Game Cast List
Mohamed bin Hammam’s entourage
Jenny Be Siew Poh the director of the president’s office at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
Michelle Chai assistant general secretary at the AFC
Najeeb Chirakal his personal assistant in Doha
Amadou Diallo the African bagman
Amelia Gan the director of finance at the AFC
Manilal Fernando the Asian fixer
Mohammed Meshadi his Qatari companion and bagman
Victoria Shanti a secretary in the AFC president’s office
In Qatar
Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani the old Emir (1972–95)
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani the ruling Emir (1995–2013)
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani the Crown Prince (Emir from 2013–)
Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned the wife of Sheikh Hamad
Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al Thani an interior minister, later prime minister
Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah the energy minister, deputy prime minister and chairman of Qatargas
. . . and the Qatar 2022 bid committee
Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani the chairman
Hassan Al-Thawadi the chief executive
Ali Al-Thawadi the deputy chief executive
Phaedra Al-Majid an international media officer
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani the president of Qatar FA and a bid member
FIFA
Sepp Blatter the president (1998–)
Chris Eaton the head of security (2010–12)
Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert the ethics judge (2011–)
Michael Garcia the ethics investigator (2011–14)
João Havelange the former president (1974–98)
Jérôme Valcke the secretary general (2007–)
. . . and the executive committee voters in 2010
Hany Abo Rida a member, Egypt
Amos Adamu a member, Nigeria
Jacques Anouma a member, Ivory Coast
Franz Beckenbauer a member, Germany
Chuck Blazer a member, USA, and the secretary general of CONCACAF
Michel D’Hooghe a member, Belgium
Şenes Erzik a member, Turkey
Julio Grondona a member, Argentina
Mohamed bin Hammam a member, Qatar, and the president of the AFC
Issa Hayatou a vice-president, Cameroon, and the president of CAF
Marios Lefkaritis a member, Cyprus
Nicolas Leoz a member, Paraguay, and the president of Conmebol
Worawi Makudi a member, Thailand
Chung Mong-joon a vice-president, South Korea
Vitaly Mutko a member, Russia
Junji Ogura a member, Japan
Michel Platini a vice-president, France, and the president of UEFA
Rafael Salguero a member, Guatemala
Reynald Temarii a member, Tahiti
Ricardo Teixeira a member, Brazil
Geoff Thompson a vice-president, England
Ángel María Villar Llona a vice-president, Spain
Jack Warner a vice-president, Trinidad and Tobago, and the CONCACAF president
The consultants
Andreas Abold an adviser to Australia
Peter Hargitay a former Blatter aide and adviser to Australia
Fedor Radmann a business partner of Beckenbauer and adviser to Australia
Michel Zen-Ruffinen a former FIFA secretary general
Joe Sim an adviser to the Thai Football Association
The confederations
AFC the Asian Football Confederation
CAF the Confederation of African Football
CONCACAF the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football
Conmebol the South American Football Confederation
OFC the Oceania Football Confederation
UEFA the Union of European Football Associations
The 2018 bidders
England
Netherlands–Belgium
Russia
Spain–Portugal
The 2022 bidders
Australia
Japan
South Korea
USA
Qatar
Acknowledgements
Both authors would like to thank their editors at The Sunday Times for throwing the newspaper’s full weight behind the FIFA Files investigation. Charles Hymas instantly saw the vast potential of the documents and backed the project throughout with huge energy and dedication. It was Martin Ivens’s boldness in devoting the first 11 pages of the paper to the story in the first week of the series that gave the scoop its massive impact. We are indebted to our fearless and forensic lawyers Pia Sarma and Pat Burge for copper-bottoming every word we wrote against the original documents from the files and providing constant advice and guidance.
Georgina Capel and Rachel Conway at our literary agency Capel & Land saw the potential for a book and got this show on the road with great aplomb. Ian Marshall, our editor at Simon & Schuster, seized the moment and spirited this volume onto the shelves at double speed. Thanks to David Hirst, our barrister, for bullet-proofing every paragraph before publication.
We are so grateful to the friends and family who read this manuscript as it came together, sharpening it with their shrewd observations and fortifying two tired authors with their kind words. Matthew Lacey pruned through every sentence deftly honing the language and testing each fact against the scarily vast bank of knowledge in his ‘memory palace’. Andy Rutherford enriched our work with his deep understanding of world affairs and foreign cultures, his love of football and his limitless enthusiasm. We’re thankful to our dear friend Michael Gillard for inspiring us by his own example as a brave and brilliant investigative journalist, and for countless late-night pep talks over far too much tequila.
Heidi would like to thank Libby Blake for being her biggest inspiration and showing her how to kick the doors down in a man’s world. Ruth and Bob Overy provided essential reading for a sports novice. Melissa Harteam Smith kept the home fires burning. Jamie Blake was always on hand to buck her up with a beer and a brotherly hug. And Nathan, Dominic and Gabriel Blake will always be her favourite little football fans the world over – in her heart, wherever she goes.
Jonathan would like to thank his children, William and Grace Calvert, for being their lovely selves and putting up with a father who has spent far too much time with his laptop lately. William for lighting up the room with his cheerfulness and infectious laughter and lifting weary spirits with his exquisite jazz guitar. Grace for being such an inspiringly bright and beautiful young woman and providing so much warm support and lively chatter.
And finally, both authors are forever grateful to our sources for
their bravery and conviction in risking so much to make the truth known. You are the heroes of this story.
List of Illustrations
1. Doha: then and now
2. In the 1950s, when Mohamed bin Hammam was a boy, Doha, the capital of Qatar, was a quiet town on the Persian Gulf. But with the development of the oil industry, it was transformed into a glittering modern city.
3. Mohamed bin Hammam, the chairman of the Qatar Football Association, Sheikh Hamad, and Sepp Blatter pose for the cameras at the Aspire Academy in February 2008. Later that day, Blatter would suggest to the Emir bringing the World Cup to Qatar.
4. Mohammed Meshadi, Jenny Be and Najeeb Chirakal, three of Bin Hammam’s most loyal aides, at the South Africa World Cup.
5. Michelle Chai, the assistant general secretary at the AFC, was another key figure in the Bin Hammam camp.
6. Bin Hammam’s daughter Aisha – many of the secretive payments made by Bin Hammam went through bank accounts in her name.
7. Bin Hammam was rarely seen publicly with members of the Qatar 2022 bid team, as officially he was supposed to be neutral. Here he is with Hassan Al-Thawadi, the bid’s chief executive, in July 2010.
8. Harold Mayne-Nicholls shakes hands with Sheikh Mohammed ahead of his inspection of the Qatari facilities in September 2010. His report would make devastating reading, but the Exco would ignore his recommendations.
