Qatar 2022 chief accuses World Cup critics of ‘clear bias’

Michael Garcia conducted the report on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids as part of his role as the chairman of Fifa's ethics committee. He has since resigned. Sebastien Bozon / AFP

There has been a “clear bias” against Qatar in the wake of Michael Garcia’s Fifa report into the bidding process for the next two World Cups, the Gulf state’s 2022 Committee chief Hassan Al Thawadi said on Friday.

FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert issued a 42-page summary of Garcia’s report in November, which identified cases of “inappropriate conduct” in a number of the bids but said there was not enough evidence to justify reopening the process.

Garcia immediately appealed against Eckert’s statement, saying it contained misrepresentations, and resigned in protest, prompting speculation that evidence of wrongdoing may have been suppressed or diluted.

A lot of the media focus was on Qatar, whose World Cup organisers have been fending off allegations of corruption ever since the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 tournament.

“I can’t say if there is a prejudice against Qatar but what I can say is there is a clear bias”, Al Thawadi, the Secretary General of the World Cup 2022 Committee told Al Jazeera.

“All the reporting on Michael Garcia, the description was, the focus was on us, on Qatar, and that was inaccurate.

“The simple fact was the investigation was on all bidding nations, 2018 along with 2022. We were very open and accepted an investigator coming from another nation that was a competitor to us for 2022.

“We never raised an issue because we were confident of our position, we embraced the process because it was an end to unfounded accusations and allegations.

“And yet nevertheless, somehow, the focus still seems to be on us and I think that, if nothing else, clearly shows there is a bias.”

Summer heat

The timing of the 2022 World Cup has been a contentious issue since the tournament was awarded to Qatar in 2010, due to the intense summer heat.

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has ruled out the summer option, even though Qatar was awarded the tournament on the understanding that new technology would be used to cool the stadiums to an ideal temperature for football.

Al Thawadi said Qatar’s plans are proceeding on the basis that it will be held in the summer, although he said they could stage the event at any time.

“Since the first days of the bid we’ve always said a summer World Cup is feasible in Qatar, but whatever the football community decides we will fulfil it,” he said.

“If the decision is to change it to the winter our commitment to the cooling technology and the legacy it leaves is still strong.

“Currently our plans are moving forward with the assumption the World Cup will be taking place in the summer.

“Once the decision is made when the World Cup will be held we will be able to change and tinker with our plans to ensure we fulfil our requirements.”

Plans to implement the cooling technology remain on track, he added.

“The cooling technology was developed years before 2010. It was on the ground, it was something tangible. The evolution of that technology is being developed as we’re moving along now and the delivery of it is coming along,” he said.

“Our stadiums are being built now, so you will see the cooling technology being built as the stadiums are built. During the bidding stage, we made promises we were confident we could deliver on. Our belief has not wavered.”

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