Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former head of Fifa, said he is willing to speak to French anti-corruption investigators investigating the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Mr Blatter, 83, said he was “at the disposal” of officials to discuss the frantic horse-trading in the days before the award of the world’s largest single sport event to a state with no history of hosting major tournaments.
Mr Blatter, who was head of the world’s global football body for 18 years, is currently suspended from football for six years over a secret £1.3 million payment to former Uefa boss Michel Platini, just months after the award of the tournament.
Mr Platini was questioned last month by French investigators over matters including the award of the 2022 tournament.
Investigators were seeking to check if Mr Platini received bribes in exchange for his support for Qatar, according to French media reports. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Blatter has previously spoken to French officials in 2017 in Switzerland as a potential witness but told the BBC that he was ready to be questioned further following the grilling of Mr Platini.
“I am prepared to help to clarify all these situations,” he told the British broadcaster. “I heard that they would like to speak with me.”
Mr Platini was seen as a likely replacement for Mr Blatter when he eventually stepped down as the most powerful figure in global football.
The succession planning was thrown awry by the corruption scandal that engulfed the sport following the award of the tournament to Doha. The were both toppled from their positions in 2015.
Mr Blatter had favoured a US bid but Mr Platini switched sides to back the Middle Eastern bid following a private dinner at the Elysee Palace, hosted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and included officials from Qatar including then crown prince Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani.
Mr Blatter has claimed that Mr Platini’s switch was key to deciding the outcome of the vote, which came just nine days after the dinner.
He claimed that Mr Platini told him that he was switching because of potential trade deals between France and Qatar. Mr Platini has denied the claim and said that he voted in the interests of football development.
“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” he told the Associated Press in 2015.
Mr Blatter told the FT in 2015 that there had been a “gentleman’s agreement” among Fifa’s top brass to back the US bid within 22-strong executive committee who decided the venue before a secret ballot.
He blamed the “governmental interference of Mr Sarkozy” for the change.
He said he received a telephone call from Mr Platini after the dinner who said that “I am no longer in your picture because I have been told by the head of state that we should consider… the situation of France.”
Two of the former president’s aides were also quizzed last month by French anti-corruption investigators. Mr Blatter said he believed that Mr Platini was questioned because of the greater interest in the role of Mr Sarkozy.
“French justice is looking in this matter but not specifically because it concerns Mr Platini, but because it concerns the [ex] head of state [Sarkozy],” the BBC reported him as saying in an interview in Zurich.
“The two other persons with him were directly linked to the former President Sarkozy. So the objective there, in my opinion, was not to put Platini in a bad situation, but to have more information.”
A month after the ballot, Qatar announced that it had begun testing French Dassault Rafale fighter jets for a fleet upgrade. It later agreed a $7 billion deal to buy 24 of the jets. Two years later, Qatar agreed to buy 12 more.
Qatari investments in France amount to about 30 billion euros since the 1990s when the economic relationship started to grow, according to Qatari officials.
The relationship continued after Mr Sarkozy lost power in 2012 with visits to Qatar by President Francois Hollande and his successor Emmanuel Macron, who signed deals in education, defence and counter-terrorism. Other investments have included in energy, property, telecommunications and sports.
The year after the vote, Qatar bought Paris Saint-Germain football club and started spending heavily on recruiting star players including Brazilian forward Neymar. Mr Sarkozy is a fan of PSG and frequently attends games.
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
First-round leaderbaord
-5 C Conners (Can)
-3 B Koepka (US), K Bradley (US), V Hovland (Nor), A Wise (US), S Horsfield (Eng), C Davis (Aus);
-2 C Morikawa (US), M Laird (Sco), C Tringale (US)
Selected others: -1 P Casey (Eng), R Fowler (US), T Hatton (Eng)
Level B DeChambeau (US), J Rose (Eng)
1 L Westwood (Eng), J Spieth (US)
3 R McIlroy (NI)
4 D Johnson (US)
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Results
2.30pm: Dubai Creek Tower – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Marmara Xm, Gary Sanchez (jockey), Abdelkhir Adam (trainer)
3pm: Al Yasmeen – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: AS Hajez, Jesus Rosales, Khalifa Al Neyadi
3.30pm: Al Ferdous – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Soukainah, Sebastien Martino, Jean-Claude Pecout
4pm: The Crown Prince Of Sharjah – Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: AF Thayer, Ray Dawson, Ernst Oertel
4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup – Handicap (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: George Villiers, Antonio Fresu, Bhupat Seemar
5pm: Palma Spring – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Es Abu Mousa, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The stats: 2017 Jaguar XJ
Price, base / as tested Dh326,700 / Dh342,700
Engine 3.0L V6
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 340hp @ 6,000pm
Torque 450Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.1L / 100km
Fringe@Four Line-up
October 1 - Phil Nichol (stand-up comedy)
October 29 - Mandy Knight (stand-up comedy)
November 5 - Sinatra Raw (Fringe theatre)
November 8 - Imah Dumagay & Sundeep Fernandes (stand-up comedy)
November 13 - Gordon Southern (stand-up comedy)
November 22 - In Loyal Company (Fringe theatre)
November 29 - Peter Searles (comedy / theatre)
December 5 - Sinatra’s Christmas Under The Stars (music / dinner show)
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