Qatar will not be able to mount a legal challenge to Fifa if football’s governing body strips it of the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. As controversy continues to rage over allegations of corruption surrounding the bid process, it has emerged that Qatar agreed to sign away its right to take any form of legal action against Fifa when it made its original tender for the tournament in 2010.

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that a mechanism is available to football’s governing body to order a new vote whereby infringements of its code of ethics are cited.

Qatar, which denies all corruption allegations, is now facing a major fight to hang on to the World Cup, and the subject is certain to feature strongly when Fifa holds its congress in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, one day before the 2014 World Cup opens.

It had been assumed that one reason Fifa might fail to order a revote for 2012 was fear of legal action by Qatar. But the legal officer of one of the bidding nations told The IoS: “All the bidding countries had to sign a registration document in which they agreed to be bound by Fifa’s code of ethics. In a normal contract with an organisation based in Zurich, you would expect the agreement to be subject to Swiss law.

‘ Qatar’s proposed stadiumQatar’s proposed stadium

‘But Fifa’s code makes it clear that all disputes are decided by the appeals committee of Fifa’s ethics committee. The appeals committee can be taken to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration in Sport. But this is a special arbitration body for sport, not a court of law.

”So should Fifa decide to have a revote, Qatar cannot take Fifa to a Swiss court. All bidding countries knew they were giving up their legal rights when bidding for the World Cup. But so keen are countries to get the World Cup, they happily agreed to do so.”

This did not seem to matter at the time of the bidding as nobody expected to Qatar to win. Since then, the decision has proved so controversial that Fifa hired former US attorney Michael Garcia to investigate both the 2022 vote and the 2018 vote in which Russia beat England. Mr Garcia will complete his report tomorrow, although it will not be submitted to Fifa until next month.

However, this carefully planned Fifa timetable has been jeopardised following extensive revelations that Mohamed Bin Hammam, a Qatari who was then a Fifa vice-president, had allegedly paid bribes totalling £3m to football administrators round the world to influence the vote.

Fair play: Mohamed Bin HammamFair play: Mohamed Bin Hammam

Mr Hammam was also a member of the Fifa executive that decided on Qatar in preference to the US, Japan and Australia. He has since been banned for life from Fifa for offences not connected with the bid. Qatar World Cup organisers insist that Mr Hammam had nothing to do with their bid and that they scrupulously followed Fifa’s code of ethics.

However, according to well-informed sources, Fifa could now use this very code of ethics to deny Qatar the prize. Crucial to such a decision would be clause two of the code. This says: “Officials shall show an ethical attitude when performing their duties. They shall pledge to behave in a dignified manner. They shall behave and act with complete credibility and integrity.”

One official from another bidding country, who has given evidence to Mr Garcia, told The IoS: “This is Fifa’s version of the FA’s catch-all clause of ‘bringing the game into disrepute’, which has often helped the FA bring charges when there was no specific evidence.

“Fifa could order a revote saying that, while there may be no direct link between Hammam and Qatar, the whole process lacked integrity. And to justify this, Fifa could also use the fact that its own evaluation report said a World Cup in Qatar in the summer when temperatures can rise to 50C was high risk, the only bidding country to be so classified.”

Some inkling of Fifa’s thinking may emerge on Wednesday when the organisation holds its congress in Sao Paulo. Before the latest revelations, this was expected to be another celebration for Fifa’s president, Sepp Blatter, with the 78-year-old announcing that he would serve a fifth term when elections are held next year. However, now there is strong pressure for Uefa to find a candidate who offers a credible alternative to the Swiss

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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.

Fifa is facing calls to rerun the bidding competition for the 2022 World Cup after allegations that a former top Qatari football official paid $5m (£2.98m) to win support for the nation's campaign to host the event.

Labour said Qatar should lose the 2022 World Cup and urged those involved to resign if the Fifa corruption allegations detailed in the Sunday Times were true. Clive Efford, the shadow sport minister, said the new revelations "called the governance of football into question".

"No one will have any confidence in a Fifa investigation run by Sepp Blatter," he said. "If these allegations are true then those involved should resign."

Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, described Fifa as a "bit of a cesspit" and suggested there was evidence of a "very serious crime" following the reports.

He told Sky News's Murnaghan programme: "The idea of another voting session with all this money sloshing around is almost too much to bear. But on the other hand, if I can pretend to be a prosecutor again for a minute, this is evidence of a very serious crime. And the fact that the allegation is that they used dollars, US dollars, means that the justice department in Washington has jurisdiction over this … the United States of course are in the World Cup finals. If the justice department started to take an interest in this, I think Fifa would feel the heat very, very quickly."

The Sunday Times said it had obtained millions of emails and other documents relating to alleged payments made by Mohamed bin Hammam, the then Fifa executive member for Qatar. The paper said Bin Hammam, also the former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president, used slush funds to pay out the cash to top football officials to win a "groundswell" of support for Qatar's World Cup bid.

John Whittingdale, chairman of the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee, called for the bidding competition to be held again and said it would be impossible for Fifa to brush aside the revelations.

"It is a further demonstration of the need for a complete change in the way that Fifa operates but also that there is now an overwhelming case that the decision as to where the World Cup should be held in 2022 should be run again," Whittingdale told the paper.

The sports minister, Helen Grant, said: "These appear to be very serious allegations. It is essential that major sporting events are awarded in an open, fair and transparent manner."

The allegations come less than two weeks before the start of the World Cup in Brazil and bring fresh scrutiny on the 2010 vote, which gave football's biggest tournament to the tiny desert state. The process is under investigation by Fifa's independent ethics prosecutor, Michael Garcia.

Qatar has also come under fire for its labour laws, in the wake of an international outcry over conditions for migrant workers before the 2022 World Cup, which followed a Guardian investigation into workplace abuse in the Gulf state.

Bin Hammam is no longer a committee member of world football's governing body after being caught up in a corruption scandal surrounding his failed campaign for its presidency in 2011. The Sunday Times alleged that he exploited his position as an executive committee member to help to secure votes from key members of its 24-man ruling committee that helped Qatar win the right to host the World Cup. Qatar defeated bids from the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

According to the newspaper, Bin Hammam used 10 slush funds controlled by his private company and cash handouts to make dozens of payments of up to $200,000 into accounts controlled by the presidents of 30 African football associations who influenced how Africa's four executive members would vote. He also allegedly hosted lavish junkets for these African officials at which he handed out almost $400,000 in cash.

Last month, Blatter said it had been a mistake to choose Qatar for the World Cup, forcing Fifa to try to limit the damage. "Yes, it was a mistake of course, but one makes lots of mistakes in life," said Blatter, Fifa's president, in an interview with the Swiss broadcaster RTS. "The technical report into Qatar said clearly it was too hot but the executive committee – with a large majority – decided all the same to play it in Qatar."

Blatter, who is standing for another term as president in 2015, is believed to have voted for the USA to host the 2022 World Cup, while his prospective rival for the presidency, Uefa's Michel Platini, voted for Qatar and has been closely linked with the plans for the 2022 tournament.

The Fifa inspection team ranked Qatar as the only "high-risk" option overall, yet it was still chosen by 14 of the 22 voting members of the executive committee in December 2010. The Fifa president said it was now "probable" that it would be played in the winter rather than the summer due to the heat. Blatter insisted, however, that Qatar, which spent huge sums on ambassadors and development programmes, had not "bought" the World Cup.

Jim Boyce, Fifa vice-president, said he would be in favour of rerunning the vote if allegations that widespread corruption was involved in the bid were proved. Boyce, who was not on the executive committee of the world governing body at the time of the vote, said Garcia, would have to widen his investigation.

Boyce told Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme: "As a member currently of the Fifa executive committee, we feel that any evidence whatsoever that people involved were bribed to do a certain vote, all that evidence should go to Michael Garcia, whom Fifa have given full authority to.

"If Garcia's report comes up and his recommendations are that wrongdoing happened for that vote for the 2022 World Cup, I certainly as a member of the executive committee would have absolutely no problem whatsoever if the recommendation was for a revote."

Anna Soubry, minister for defence personnel, welfare and veterans, said: "Somebody somewhere has got to get a serious grip on Fifa about the way that they run these competitions."

Jim Murphy, the shadow international development secretary, also called for a rethink if the allegations were found to be true.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics: "If these allegations and the contents of the emails that the Sunday Times now has turn out to be true there can be no question about this. The thing wasn't done fairly, it wasn't done openly and it would have to be cancelled and rerun entirely. The building that is happening in Qatar should be paused and they should have a fair and open competition."

Qatar's World Cup officials said the bid committee had "always upheld the highest standard of ethics and integrity".

The country's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy said: "Mohamed bin Hammam played no official or unofficial role in Qatar's 2022 bid committee. As was the case with every other member of Fifa's executive committee, our bid team had to convince Mr Bin Hammam of the merits of our bid.

"We are cooperating fully with Mr Garcia's ongoing investigation and remain totally confident that any objective inquiry will conclude we won the bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup fairly.

"Following today's newspaper articles, we vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar's bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter. The right to host the tournament was won because it was the best bid and because it is time for the Middle East to host its first Fifa World Cup."

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.

Amnesty International is calling on world soccer's governing body FIFA to address the issue of migrant workers' abuse in Qatar during its meeting later this month, the rights group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Pressure on Qatar, which is hosting the 2022 soccer World Cup, increased after a report in Britain's Guardian newspaper in September found that dozens of Nepali construction workers had died and that labourers were not given enough food and water.

Officials from Qatar and Nepal denied the report.

"Despite previous promises by FIFA to address the 'unacceptable' situation for migrant workers in Qatar, last week FIFA's Secretary-General Jerome Valcke said: FIFA is not a United Nations. FIFA is about sport," Amnesty said.

The London-based rights group called on FIFA to clarify its stance and end mixed messages over its role in addressing the abuse of migrants in Qatar's construction sector.

"When FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, it assumed a responsibility for the human rights impact of that decision. It is involved in this issue, whether it likes it or not," said James Lynch, Amnesty's researcher on migrant workers in the Gulf.

Faced with the challenge of completing major construction and infrastructure projects before the World Cup, Qatar has an increasing number of its estimated 1.8 million foreigners working on projects related to soccer's showcase event.

Last month, Qatar's 2022 World Cup organisers said they would penalise contractors who violate the welfare of construction workers and revealed a detailed workers' charter which contractors should comply with.

Senior FIFA official and his family were paid almost $2 million from a Qatari firm linked to the country's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup.

The story identifies the official as Jack Warner, FIFA's former vice president, saying Warner "appears to have been personally paid $1.2 million ... from a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the decision to award the country the tournament."

The story goes on to say:

It is understood that the FBI is now investigating Trinidad-based Mr Warner and his alleged links to the Qatari bid, and that the former Fifa official's eldest son, who lives in Miami, has been helping the inquiry as a co-operating witness.

The awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was one of the most controversial decisions in sporting history. The intense summer heat in the desert nation has raised the prospect of the tournament being moved to the winter for the first time.

The allegations are likely of interest to Nike and Adidas, which sponsor several federations as well as individual players competing in the World Cup. Adidas is an official World Cup sponsor. Spokespeople for both companies declined to comment on The Telegraph's report.

The newspaper also quotes an official from England's doomed 2018 World Cup bid encouraging FIFA, the world's soccer governing body, to investigate the newspaper's evidence against Warner.

Also, The Telegraph has a story examining the conditions of staging the World Cup in Qatar, from constructing facilities to competing in the games.

Organizers of the 2022 event distanced themselves from The Independent's allegations, The Associated Press reported.

Russian impact: Brian Sozzi, chief executive of Belus Capital Advisors, believes Nike could be hurt by the Russia/Crimea/Ukraine conflict. He writes at thestreet.com:

Nike (NKE) has 99 stores in Russia, 57 of them factory stores. In 2013, revenue from Russia rose a cool 28%. By the way, Nike also designed the jerseys for the Russian ice hockey team, and it is supposed to be a major player for World Cup 2018 held in Russia.

New shoes: Nike's Jordan Brand now has a running shoe, Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal reports.

Title XI film: A fledgling film director is trying to raise money for a Nike spec commercial called "Girl Power," currently in the final development stage, that highlights the role Title XI played in improving sports conditions for girls and young women.

Alibaba: Chinese e-tailer Alibaba is planning an initial public offering of stock in the United States, expected to be the biggest IPO since Facebook. While Alibaba is huge in the world's most populous country, competitors abound, including Nike, says this story in The Guardian.

Game ball: Official Adidas-designed World Cup ball Brazuca, meet Gorduchinha. Also known around Brazil as "little chubby," Gorduchinha was created and is being sold by a Brazilian company with the claim that the the moniker was the name many Brazilians wanted for the official ball, the London Evening Standard reports.

Hoeness' return: Both France winger Franck Ribery and ex-Germany captain Oliver Kahn believe disgraced ex-club president Uli Hoeness will return to work at Bayern Munich after serving a prison sentence for fraud, according to www.football.co.uk.a

The Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, is demanding meaningful consultation over moving the 2022 World Cup to the winter. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

The Premier League's chief executive, Richard Scudamore, has warned it would be "morally reprehensible" for Fifa to move the Qatar 2022World Cup to winter without meaningful consultation with the rest of the game.

The pressure from the Premier League and other professional leagues, Fifa's broadcasting partners, and other stakeholders, looks set to result in a more emollient tone from the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on Friday. Blatter is expected to announce that there is broad agreement that the 2022 World Cup cannot be played at the height of summer but that a lengthy consultation period will be required to find a way forward.

As a result, there may be no final decision on the dates of the 2022 tournament for nine months or more. Fifa's preferred option of November and December 2022 is seen as the most likely option but the Uefa president, Michel Platini, would prefer January and February so as not to clash with the group stages of the Champions League.

"I wouldn't object to taking a decision on moving it in principle – I think nearly everybody is agreed on that," said Northern Ireland's Jim Boyce, the British representative on the Fifa executive committee. "But I don't think we can make any decision on the exact timing – should it be in November, January or whenever – until we have got everyone in the game around the table to find a solution." Blatter is also expected to address the issue of workers' rights in Qatar after a Guardian investigation found that dozens of Nepalese workers employed on infrastructure projects have died in recent weeks alone.

While many of those who have opposed the switch to winter now privatley accept that the move is inevitable, there remains widespread annoyance at the way Fifa has been tackling the issue. Blatter is expected to announce tomorrow the formation of a new Fifa Qatar 2022 taskforce to co-ordinate the consultation exercise with all affected parties. The Bahraini Fifa executive committee member, Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa, is believed to be under consideration to lead it.

"The language seems to be: 'Qatar have won it. Right, now what? Where are we going to play it?' Fifa has absolute power and responsibility in one area of that. But it would be morally reprehensible if they were to start tinkering with the World Cup calendar as early as October of this year," said Scudamore.

"As though because they have the power to decide where the World Cup goes, they have the power to decide when it's played. Those are two very different things. The sporting calendar across the world is affected."

The association of European Professional Football Leagues, of which the Premier League is a part, has highlighted a range of potential issues with a winter switch that would affect the calendars for the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. They include the impact on players' contracts, some broadcast deals and the knock-on effect on various other sports.

Fox and NBC subsidiary Telemundo, which paid $1bn for the broadcast rights to the World Cup in the US, are believed to remain exercised about the possible impact of a clash with the NFL season.

While Fifa has ruled out paying compensation to losing bidders, including Australia and the US, it is understood that the broadcasters believe they would be entitled to redress under their contracts.

A Fifa spokesman insisted there was "no doubt" the 2022 tournament would be played in Qatar, despite the ongoing investigation by Michael Garcia, the head of the investigatory arm of Fifa's ethics committee, into the election process. "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."

Hassan al-Thawadi, the head of the Qatar 2022 supreme committee, reiterated that they were ready to host the tournament in either winter or summer and insisted there was no basis for Fifa removing the tournament from them.

"The great thing for me is, I can safely say, we're continuing with our plans as it is, so whatever decision comes out will not change our plans and hence there's no time limit," he said.

The Uefa president, Michel Platini, a Fifa vice-president, voted for Qatar and has backed the idea of playing in winter, but said he was more concerned with dealing with the findings of the Guardian's investigation that uncovered appalling treatment of migrant workers.

"I'm much more concerned about that than the discussion about summer and winter," he said on arriving in Zurich.

For many World Cup fans, a football stadium is more than a mere stadium. It is a home away from home, and something of the main attraction, indeed embodying the full football experience. For the entire duration of the tournament, over 3,000,000 fans at the stadiums and one billion fans who watch the games from their TVs at home, fill these venues with their hopes, dreams and aspirations.

They come to the stadiums to see and cheer on their favorite players. But even as they draw up to the parking lot, show the ticket attendant their stubs, walk up to their seats and sip their beer (or fast booming non-alcoholic brew), they marvel at the stadium. At a tournament like the World Cup, the venue becomes as significant as the game.  It is part and parcel of the world cup experience.

Ex-FIFA official calls awarding 2022 World Cup to Qatar 'big mistake' over health fears

Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the former chairman of the Chilean Football Association (FA), had warned that awarding the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup to the Gulf kingdom was a mistake as it will be 'impossible and impractical' to play in Qatar in the summer months even with the cooling technology proposed by the organising committee.

According to Sky News, Mayne-Nicholls had stated in a report that the summer months would pose as a health risk for players, officials and spectators and requires precautions to be taken, although his recommendations failed to come into fruition after Qatar polled more votes than the USA to win the tournament.

However, Mayne-Nicholls, who now runs a charitable sporting foundation in Chile, revealed that he was certain that Qatar would win the 2022 World Cup three days before the decisive FIFA vote in late 2010, although he called for the tournament to be moved to a different, cooler time of the year. (ANI)

A day after two FIFA leaders are suspended, allegations fly about 'kangaroo court,' Qatar's bid for 2022 World Cup and motives of current FIFA president running for reelection.

Jack Warner talks to journalists in the lobby of a hotel in Zurich on Monday following his suspension from all FIFA-related activities for his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal. (Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters / May 30, 2011)

Jack Warner, the suspended vice president of FIFA, had warned over the weekend that "a tsunami" was about to strike international soccer's governing body.

On Monday, that storm hit with a vengeance as Warner accused FIFA of operating "a kangaroo court" and released an email in which Jerome Valcke, FIFA's general secretary, stated that Qatar had "bought" the 2022 World Cup.

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Qatar, which finished ahead of the U.S. in the Dec. 2 vote to stage the quadrennial tournament, immediately objected and said it would consider legal action.

Valcke then issued a statement in which he tried to clarify what he had said in the email leaked by Warner.

Meanwhile, speculation continued that should Qatar's bid be found to have been unethically won, the 2022 World Cup could still be awarded to the U.S., which lost the initial vote, 13-4.

In Australia, which was also a 2022 candidate, Nick Xenophon, a member of the Australian senate, asked FIFA to reimburse the money it spent on its bid.

"It appears corrupt and highly questionable behavior goes to the core of FIFA," he said. "Australia spent almost $49 million on a bid we were never in the running for."

In a second broadside Monday, this one aimed at Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, FIFA's president, Warner said that Blatter, who is running for reelection, had "made a gift" on May 3 of $1 million to soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region "to spend as it deems fit."

He said Blatter had also "organized gifts of laptops and projectors to all members of the Caribbean" soccer confederation.

Warner has been CONCACAF's president for the last 21 years. He was provisionally suspended from all soccer activity Sunday by FIFA's ethics committee, as was Mohammad Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation, for the alleged bribery and attempted bribery of CONCACAF members.

Warner's Monday accusation suggested Blatter was equally at fault for trying to buy votes as Bin Hammam, who is accused of offering $40,000 in cash to CONCACAF members attending a May 11 meeting in Trinidad organized by Warner.

Bin Hammam was running against Blatter for the FIFA presidency until he announced his withdrawal Sunday shortly before being suspended.

Valcke was the man on the hot seat Monday and reacted to Warner's charges by clarifying how Qatar had won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup.

"What I wanted to say is that the winning bid used their financial strength to lobby for support," Valcke said. "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 behavior.

"I would also like to clarify that there is, as I said yesterday, no investigation open at FIFA regarding the 2022 FIFA World Cup host election."

Whether that would be enough to placate Qatar was uncertain after the organizing committee's statement Monday afternoon: "Qatar 2022 categorically deny any wrongdoing in connection with their winning bid. We are urgently seeking clarification from FIFA about the statement from their general secretary.

"In the meantime, we are taking legal advice to consider our options."

Warner, a FIFA executive committee member for almost 30 years, was infuriated by his suspension by FIFA's ethics committee, pending further investigation.

"I look on the suspension as the worst form of justice by any sporting organization," he said. "They came premeditated, they weren't prepared to listen, they were hand-picked to do a task and they did just that.

"The guys were hand-picked by Blatter. A kangaroo court would be a decent thing to say."

Bin Hammam's reaction to his suspension was along the same lines.

"The way these proceedings have been conducted is absolutely not compliant with any principles of justice," he said. "I am punished before I am found guilty. I get the impression that the outcome of these proceedings had been defined from the very beginning."

Suspension of the 62-year-old Qatari has fueled suspicion, particularly among Middle Eastern observers, that it was all a ploy by Blatter to rid himself of a rival for the presidency.

There was a belief Monday that Asian voters might either boycott Wednesday's FIFA Congress in Zurich or abstain from voting in the presidential election, as England, one of 208 FIFA members, already has said it would do.

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke confirmed today that an email he sent suggesting the 2022 World Cup was "bought" was genuine.

The email was made public by banned FIFA vice-president Jack Warner in a blistering attack on the world governing body.

Valcke, according to Warner's statement, sent an email to him about Mohamed Bin Hammam "buying" the 2022 World Cup for his country.

Bin Hammam was then standing against Sepp Blatter for president - but he has also been banned by the ethics committee on bribery charges.

According to Warner, the email from Valcke to him stated: "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 [Blatter]. Or he thought you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC."

Valcke said in Zurich today: "It was a private email and we will discuss it. He sent me an email asking if I want that [Bin Hammam to run], he said that I should ask Bin Hammam to pull out."

Valcke said Warner had only published selected parts of the email, and he denied claims by Warner and Bin Hammam that he had influenced the ethics committee against them.

He added: "The first time I met the chairman of the ethics committee was yesterday at 5'o'clock before we went to the press conference. I had no contact at all with anyone."

Meanwhile, UEFA president Michel Platini defended Blatter against other claims by Warner that he had made a 1million US dollar payment to the CONCACAF federation without authorisation of the finance committee. Warner had claimed Platini was "annoyed" about this but the UEFA president said: "It's not like that, it was a joke with me and Mr Blatter.

"He can give the projects that he wants to give. I joke, I said 'but Sepp this was not accepted by the committee' - but he can give many projects to many national associations and we will confirm in the GOAL project after.

"In many Congresses for many, many years the president can give one or two projects to national associations - he has his own budget and he can give to one confederation and then it has to be approved of course by the executive committee next time."

Platini admitted there could be a repeat of the events of the 1999 FIFA Congress when the Asian members walked out in a protest over the number of World Cup places.

He added: "I don't know what will happen - there are some meetings of the confederations in the next few days, I don't know what will happen.

"In '99 Asia left, I don't know if they will do that again. I think the election will go ahead but I don't know."

Blatter said he was not worried about the threat of that happening.

He said: "I have already faced that once and the Congress went on. They will be there I am aure."

Bin Hammam responded to the claims, telling BBC Sport: "You would have to ask Jerome Valcke what he was thinking. I don't know why he has said that.

"If I was paying money for Qatar you also have to ask the 13 people who voted for Qatar."

Asked whether Valcke's allegation was true he dismissed it, saying: "What do you think?"

Julia Gillard on stage with Oprah.

It is advisable to set your price limit before bidding at an auction. Some people get carried away by emotion and pay way over the odds. Which is what the vendor wants.

Australia spent $45 million on its bid to host the FIFA World Cup, which apparently got us one vote. To win we needed 12. We are pretty lucky our government didn't go all out because this could have got as expensive as its program to install insulation batts.

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I was in the Gulf when the decision was announced. People offered commiserations over Australia's defeat. But, of course, they were glad Qatar won. Qatar is precisely the kind of place to host a World Cup. It has plenty of money to build the stadiums, roads, and hotels. There won't be any labour disputes or delays of the kind that plagued the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. It will be done to an extravagant budget and finished on time.

Qatar is a major oil producer. Its gas reserves dwarf those of Australia. The labour to do the construction will be mostly imported. Out of a population of about 2 million, only a minority are actually Qataris, and - along with Lichtenstein - they have the highest per capita income in the world. There is no tax in Qatar. The funds to host the event will come from the country's oil and gas revenues, which are ultimately owned by the ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

When Abu Dhabi decided to stage its formula one race, it developed a whole island - Yas Island - with hotels, marinas and permanent grandstands, at a cost estimated at $40 billion. Does that mean that Australia should pay a similar sum to stage its race? Not for a moment. If the oil-rich kingdom has that kind of money to spend, that is a matter for it. Many Australians will have the chance to go there and enjoy it. But we don't have a spare $40 billion sitting around - not even for uncommercial projects such as the national broadband network.

There are benefits in promoting tourism to Australia, and major events such as the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games can draw in tourists. But I have never believed the claims that they run at a profit. Our best tourism campaign was Paul Hogan throwing another shrimp on the barbie. It cost so little that Hogan's fee hardly troubled the Tax Office.

The recent visit of Oprah was a piece of sensational public relations. Time will tell whether it boosts visitor numbers. But for a week it put Australia right in the forefront of exposure to the world's largest economy. The coverage was as sympathetic as you could imagine. It had a lot of stereotypes - crocodiles, snakes and the like - but that's what tourists look for.

It helps to have our own famous people - Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe - promoting Australia in these programs and good on them for doing it. But one of our famous people who climbed on the bandwagon should not have been anywhere near the scene of the Opradulation.

Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister of Australia. She is the person ultimately responsible for sending troops into battle. She is the one who must stand up and insist our country is treated with respect in international forums. She is not a support act for a visiting US celebrity. She didn't do well. In fact, it was cringe-making.

When previous Australian prime ministers such as Harold Holt and John Gorton got star struck by the Americans, at least it was for presidents - they didn't gush in the presence of TV personalities.

The Roman poet Juvenal lamented that the politicians of ancient Rome had cheapened the empire with a policy of "bread and circuses".

The Prime Minister needs to look, well, prime ministerial. The present government is faltering. Sound government rather than media spin would give it some respect. Big sporting events are nice - the kind of thing you might do when the basics are covered. But events management is best run by those that have unlimited resources to stage them.

Citizen democracies must be careful to use taxpayers' money sparingly and wisely. And the Prime Minister should never, never think she can become a celebrity. If she were any good at that she would not be in politics.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

LONDON — The World Cup finally made it to Africa in 2010 and plans were made to send football's showpiece to even more new destinations.

After South Africa overcame dire predictions of security problems and half-empty stadiums to stage a World Cup that united the country in celebration, FIFA voted to give future tournaments to Russia and Qatar.

South Africa's first-round exit made it the least successful host team in World Cup history, but the rest of the country mostly coped admirably with its biggest global gathering since the end of a decades-long boycott by world sport.

Fans worldwide became intimately acquainted with the incessant buzz of the vuvuzela as South Africans celebrated the World Cup and the arrival of many of the superstars they had only ever seen before on television.

But on the field, the World Cup was far from a classic. Spain's 1-0 win over the Netherlands came in the dirtiest ever final, which was an appropriate end to a tournament that promised much but delivered little.

While Germany again thrilled neutrals to take third place for a second straight tournament, Brazil was dour. Italy and England were even worse, but France took the unofficial title of tournament laughing stock — so consumed by dissent that players refused to train before a 2-1 loss to South Africa that confirmed the team's humiliating first-round exit.

Diego Maradona's presence as coach inspired his beloved Argentina to some fitfully entertaining displays, with Lionel Messi doing everything except score, but Germany dismantled the South Americans 4-0 in the quarterfinals and Maradona was fired soon after.

The fervor of home fans was quelled when five of Africa's six entrants fell in the first round. Although Ghana then beat the United States 2-1 in a game watched by 19.4 million Americans — a U.S. record beaten when 24.3 million watched the final — the remaining enthusiasm turned to anger when a deliberate handball by Uruguay forward Luis Suarez denied their adopted team a winner in the last minute of the quarterfinals.

Suarez was suspended from Uruguay's first semifinal match since 1954, but FIFA refused calls for additional punishment for a cynical act that became one of the most memorable moments of the tournament.

Even Spain disappointed despite following West Germany and France to become only the third side to hold the World Cup and European Championship trophies at the same time.

This was far from the stylish Spain that dominated Euro 2008 and cruised through World Cup qualifying with 10 wins from 10 games.

The Spaniards lost their opening match to Switzerland in the tournament's biggest shock, before 1-0 wins in each of the four knockout rounds made them the lowest scoring world champions ever, with eight goals from seven matches.

A squad dominated by homegrown Barcelona stars waited patiently for its talent to yield a goal before trusting that its technical superiority would allow it to keep the ball and deny the opposition the chance to equalize.

It worked, even against a brutal display from the Netherlands in the final at Soccer City in Johannesburg. With the teams facing a penalty shootout, Andres Iniesta scored with four minutes of extra time left to clinch his country's first World Cup.

The Dutch were handed nine of the final's record 14 yellow cards and defender John Heitinga became only the fifth man to get a red card on football's biggest stage.

It was a huge anticlimax, especially after a clearly frail Nelson Mandela had turned up to wave to fans at the stadium in Soweto where 20 years earlier he had held his first mass rally following his release from jail.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque seemed to have tightened things up after Barcelona's shock defeat to Inter Milan in the semifinals of Europe's Champions League.

With Spain internationals Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Victor Valdes in its lineup, the defending champions dominated Inter with an astonishing 71 percent possession over two matches but left space on the counterattack to lose 3-2 on aggregate.

Inter's 3-1 win in the first leg owed much to the sort of precision and patience Spain would show at the World Cup, where Busquets and Xabi Alonso effectively mirrored Inter's defensive shield of Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso.

Inter and Germany were just about the only sides able to stop Messi during a year in which he made sure the repeated comparisons between him and Maradona — still Argentina's greatest ever player — ceased to become far-fetched.

Messi helped Barcelona retain the Spanish league and scored an incredible 58 club goals in 2010 to maintain his status as the world's best player, despite Cristiano Ronaldo's sparkling form for Real Madrid.

The dethroning of Barcelona — which by mid December of the following season was unbeaten in 22 matches and had scored 31 goals while conceding only one in the last seven of those — was simply the latest entry in Jose Mourinho's astounding career.

Mourinho led Inter to an unprecedented treble of Serie A title, Italian Cup and Champions League, with Bayern Munich beaten 2-0 in the final in Madrid.

Mourinho swiftly quit Inter — still with a record of not having lost a home league match with any team since February 2002 — and went to Real Madrid. After a strong start to the 2010-11 season, Madrid was rocked by November's 5-0 mauling at Barcelona but, with his track record, Mourinho could still end the season on a high.

Inter won December's Club World Cup to end 2010 with an Italian record five trophies in a calendar year. Inter beat TP Mazembe in the final after the African champion had shocked Copa Libertadores holder Internacional in the previous round, but that was a rare high point under Mourinho's successor Rafa Benitez.

Benitez's former club Liverpool was embroiled in a lengthy and convoluted dispute over its ownership that was only resolved when Britain's High Court forced American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. to sell up.

Liverpool remained in American hands as Boston Red Sox owners New England Sports Ventures bought the club, but the team was way behind England's elite on the field.

Officiating of the game continued to evolve as football's rule-making body agreed to reopen discussions on the use of goal-line technology after mistakes helped eliminate Mexico and England from the World Cup.

In Europe, UEFA expanded its experimental use of additional assistant referees into the Champions League.

But there could be more trouble ahead for FIFA after its decision to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and '22 edition to Qatar.

World football's ruling body said it was trying to spread the game into new territory by giving the tournament to Europe's largest country and then the Middle East, but the move was overshadowed by allegations of corruption and a lack of transparency in FIFA.

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