Members of Qatar’s World Cup bidding committee are expected to meet with FIFA to sort out the scandal around the 2022 bid. This is due to allegations that FIFA’s former vice-president Mohamed Bin Hammam bribed officials with 5 million dollars in exchange for support for Qatar to win the bid. He was banned for life in 2011, but the ban was reversed a year later due to a lack of strong evidence. The Qatari group has always denied any wrongdoing. (Image source: BBC) - 

Bill Clinton looked anything but happy as he strode into the Savoy Baur en Ville hotel in Zurich in December 2010. The receptionists could tell he was irritated, but had no idea just how angry he was.
After closing the door to his suite, he reached for an ornament on a table and threw it at a wall mirror in a fit of rage, shattering the glass.

The former US president, who had spent two years travelling the world glad-handing members of football’s governing body, Fifa, could not believe America’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup had been beaten by, of all places, Qatar.

Mr Clinton, the honorary chairman of the US bid, had wheeled out such big-hitters as Brad Pitt, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morgan Freeman and Spike Lee to add lustre to the US Soccer Federation bid. Australia and Japan’s bids had seemed the biggest threat, but few had seriously entertained the idea that Qatar, a footballing desert, could win.
“Clinton was fuming,” said one well-placed source. “He felt humiliated and felt the decision did not make sense.”

The answer could lie in a series of payments made by a senior Qatari official to various Fifa members. The Qatar 2022 bid committee is adamant that there is no link.
In the wake of Qatar’s victory, the US and Australian governing bodies, or sources close to them, each hired teams of private detectives who have worked behind the scenes since, interviewing witnesses and obtaining documents in the search for what they were certain was the hidden truth about the motives of Fifa members in voting for Qatar.

Whether there is any connection between these investigations and the leak of documents to The Sunday Times is unclear, but Australia and the US have most to gain if Qatar is stripped of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, newspapers have been making their own inquiries into the controversy.

In March this year, The Telegraph disclosed that Jack Warner, the former vice-president of Fifa, and his family were paid almost £1.2million by a Qatari firm linked to the World Cup bid. This newspaper also revealed that the 10-year-old daughter of a Brazilian Fifa executive who participated in the 2010 decision had more than £2 million put into a savings account set up in her name.

The Sunday Times has been given millions of leaked documents that appear to show a further £2 million in bribes that were paid to Fifa members in a plot allegedly organised by Mohamed Bin Hammam, Qatar’s most senior football official at the time.
Mr Bin Hammam is alleged to have used ten secret slush funds to make dozens of payments, many of them to accounts controlled by the heads of 30 African football associations who could lobby the continent’s four executive members over how to vote.
Mohamed Bin Hammam (Shirley Bahadur/ AP)
Mr Bin Hammam was banned from world football in 2011 after he was caught bribing voters in his bid to be elected Fifa president.
Now The Telegraph has discovered that Michel Platini, the president of Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA, held secret meetings with Mr Bin Hammam, and that Thailand was offered a gas deal in return for its support of the Qatar bid.
Michel Platini (Pics United)
The clamour for Qatar to be punished has now built such momentum that Australia is said to be ready to re-run its bid if the 2022 tournament is up for grabs again, with the US likely to follow suit.
Where that leaves England’s World Cup ambitions is less easy to predict. England bid for the 2018 World Cup, given to Russia on the same day as Qatar was awarded the 2022 tournament.
David Cameron and the Duke of Cambridge were among those lobbying Fifa in the run-up to the vote in Switzerland, yet the bid got just two votes and was eliminated in the first round of voting.
Andy Anson, the chief executive of England’s bid, said some executive committee members had told lies. He had been confident that England could secure seven votes in the first round, a base that would have provided a platform for victory.
“I do feel people let us down, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t,” he said. “People who promised us our vote obviously went the other way.”
Even before Russia annexed Crimea, concerns had been raised about the country’s human rights and safety record, and there is speculation that if the 2022 vote has to be re-run, the 2018 vote would have to be re-run also.
Fifa is already looking at the possibility of moving the 2022 tournament to the winter months, and speculation is growing that Mr Blatter is looking for an excuse to reverse the decision altogether, with health concerns being a potential excuse.
A spokesman for the Qatar 2022 bid said Mr Bin Hammam had never worked for the bid and they knew nothing about his activities.

Qatar's World Cup 2022 organising committee has stressed that no final decision has yet been made regarding the number of stadia it will build for the football tournament.

In response to news reports this week which claimed that Qatar has reduced the number of venues because of cost concerns and delays, the 2022 Local Organising Committee said consultations were still on-going with FIFA.

It added in a statement that the committee will submit its final proposal for stadia by December with a decision by the FIFA Executive by March 2015.

"The process of selecting the final proposed line-up of host venues is on-going in consultation with FIFA," it said.

It admitted tha FIFA and the Local Organising Committee decided to look into reducing the originally proposed 12 venues to fit the country's specifications "while ensuring best playing conditions for all 64 matches", adding that FIFA requests a minimum of eight stadia for hosting the World Cup.

The statement added: "The 2022 Local Organising Committee will submit by December 2014 a proposal for an appropriate number of host venues, whilst ensuring a suitable legacy for the country and the national league after the tournament. The approval of the final number of stadiums is envisaged by the FIFA Executive Committee by March 2015."

Earlier this week, it was reported that Qatar had slashed the number of stadiums it will build for the World Cup by a third amid rising costs and delays.

Qatar has flagged a more than $200bn spend on new infrastructure ahead of the World Cup, including $34bn on a rail and metro system, $7bn on a port and $17bn on an airport. The stadiums will cost $4bn, according to the ministry of business and trade.

Qatar, which has faced delays with the start of work on the metro system and opening of the new airport, recorded a 1.4 percent decrease in its 2014-15 budget surplus compared to the previous year as spending on key projects increased by 17 percent, Qatar News Agency said last month.

Construction has started on the Wakra stadium, while work on the Al Rayan stadium is set to start later this year.

Dr Dan Musinguzi and Stephanie Bourne are collaborating with Edinburgh Napier University experts on the project.
Doha: Stenden University Qatar (SUQ) is embarking on the first phase of a QR856,000 research project funded by National Priorities Research Programme (NPRP), the flagship funding programme of Qatar Foundation’s Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), to promote a sustainable and positive legacy for Qatar’s FIFA World Cup in 2022.

The two-year project ‘Leveraging the 2022 Qatar World Football Cup for the promotion of green and active living: A multiple stakeholder evaluation of strategic options’ is a collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland.

The focus will be on promoting healthy, active lifestyles and green initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint in Qatar.

This is the first SUQ project to receive QNRF funding, and signals a new emphasis on research as the university’s academics gear up to initiate tourism research projects to help realise the Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy.

Dr Dan Musinguzi, Lecturer and research specialist in tourism impacts, residents’ perceptions of tourism, service quality and cultural heritage,  and Stephanie Bourne are collaborating with Edinburgh Napier University experts Dr Eleni Theodoraki, Dr Jane Ali-Knight and Dr Maktoba Omar,

Dr Theodoraki is an international events expert recently involved with Unesco in preparing the sports policy agenda for the World Congress of Sport Ministers. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, also appointed her Commissioner in the Commission of a Sustainable London 2012.

The team will liaise with event organisers, public health experts, physical educators, city planners and environmental agencies in Qatar to develop findings to be shared with the government and FIFA.

Initially, they will contact event organisers in Qatar across sectors, including sports, health, education, banking, retail business and technology, to assess through an online questionnaire what green and active campaigns and messages are being promoted in Qatar via events.

The project aims to be a knowledge-sharing platform, setting up a network for organisers to ensure their events promote positive social habits.

Recycling and low carbon use are among these as well as increased physical activity and sports participation, all of which will help create a positive legacy for the 2022 World Cup.

Dr Musinguzi said: “This is a fascinating and highly topical issue, not only in Qatar but for the organisers of international events throughout the world – how they can create a sustainable legacy from events to benefit those living in the country for years to come.

“We are grateful to QNRF for its generous funding and to our partners at Edinburgh Napier University. As SUQ continues to strengthen its research capabilities, this will be the first of many projects our academic experts will be working on to support sports’ tourism development and diversification of Qatar’s economy.”

Dr Theodoraki, said: “Mega sporting events have the power to inspire social change. Qatar has a great opportunity to use the 2022 World Cup to encourage people to adopt green and active lifestyles.

“By engaging with experts in Qatar and the UK we aim to find out what opportunities exist to promote environmentally sound habits such as recycling and low carbon use, as well as healthy physical activity and sports participation in the run- up to the event, and beyond it,” Dr Theodoraki said.

The questionnaire will also be accessible to event organisers via the group’s Facebook page: Green and Active Living Qatar.

The Peninsula

A FIFA spokesman has insisted there is 'no doubt' the 2022 World Cup will be played in Qatar as the world governing body meets to discuss growing concerns over the tournament.

FIFA's executive committee began a two-day meeting in Zurich on Thursday, and although it is expected they will not discuss the 2022 tournament until Friday, it was already the dominant topic of conversation outside its headquarters.

While the footballing authorities grapple with the question of whether it should be played in the summer or the winter, ongoing debates over the fairness of the original bidding process and fresh controversy over Qatar's treatment of migrant workers involved in constructing facilities have led some to question whether it should go ahead in the country at all.

However, FIFA spokesman Walter De Gregorio has moved to end that debate before it gathers momentum.

"No doubt," he told reporters when asked if it would be played in Qatar. "What is open to question is if we play in winter, and if so is it November, December, January, I don't know...

"But there is no doubt we will play in Qatar."

The issue of migrant workers' rights was raised again as the meetings got under way as a group from the global workers' union launched a protest outside FIFA headquarters.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter had originally promised there would be a decision at this week's meetings on when the tournament would be played, but others have called for a delay while a full consultation is undertaken with the game's stakeholders.

Britain's FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce is prepared to back a decision in principle to move the World Cup to the winter to avoid the summer heat in Qatar but thinks it is too early to decide on the exact timing.

He told Press Association Sport: "I wouldn't object to taking a decision on moving it in principle - I think nearly everybody is agreed on that.