The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SCDL) has denied any wrongdoings after the latest allegations made by The Sunday Times with regard to Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup finals.
“The Qatar 2022 Bid Committee always upheld the highest standard of ethics and integrity in its successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” the SCDL said in a statement.
“In regard to the latest allegations from The Sunday Times, we say again that 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,” it said.
The statement said that the SCDL was cooperating fully with (FIFA Ethics Chief) Mr. Michael Garcia’s investigation. It said the SCDL remained totally confident that any objective enquiry would conclude that it 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 in to 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,” the statement added.
The Sunday Times newspaper said it had obtained millions of secret documents proving that Bin Hammam, a Qatari who used to be FIFA vice-president, was lobbying on his country’s behalf ahead of the vote in December, 2010.