A dossier said to list billions of dollars in bribery and suspect deals surrounding Qatar’s bid for the 2022 Fifa World Cup is to reveal financial payments made into the account of a former Fifa official.
The payment of Dh17.6 million into the Swiss bank account of Julio Grondona, the former head of the Argentina Football Association and Fifa's senior vice-president – once only behind disgraced President Sepp Blatter in the global football body's pecking order – is just one of multiple transactions set out by a new report to launch The Foundation for Sports Integrity at a conference in London later this week.
A five-year investigation by America's FBI culminated in the arrest of seven top Fifa officials in Switzerland in 2015. Subsequent trials heard the extent of corruption allegations against Mr Grondona and others.
A New York court hearing late last year heard that Mr Grondona, who died of a heart attack in 2014 aged 82, was involved in a feud with two other South American members of the Fifa council after taking bribes. "Ricardo Teixeria, Nicholas Leoz and Julio Grondona received money in relation to the election of Qatar as the venue for the 2022 World Cup," Alejandro Burzaco, an Argentinian witness, told the trial.
The Foundation charges that Qatar also used a Dh5.36 billion Qatar Airways purchase with Airbus, a LNG deal with Thailand and redeemed a Dh245 million debt held by the Argentinian FA to pave the way for its victory in the race to secure the tournament in 2010.
The Foundation's launch event seeks to intensify pressure on the football government body Fifa over its decision to award both the 2018 tournament, which starts next month, to Russia and 2022 to Qatar.
While sources close to the Foundation conceded it was too late to change the venue this summer, Fifa could still be held accountable for both the flawed bidding process and the serious issues surrounding Qatar's build-up to the football tournament.
"We want discussions on the situation as it stands with Fifa regarding the bidding process past, present and future to ensure it is fit for purpose," the source close to the Foundation said. "While it is late in the day regarding Russia, we want to expose concerns over bidding and staging the tournaments."
Damian Collins, the high-profile chairman of the culture and sport committee in Britain's parliament, Jerome Champagne, a former Fifa presidential candidate, and Benita Mersiades, the Fifa whistleblower, will all take part in the conference on Thursday.
The Foundation has been established by sports entrepreneur turned anti-doping campaigner Jaimie Fuller, who also helped to establish the New Fifa Now social media campaign. That was set up after Mr Fuller travelled to Qatar to investigate reports about abuses within the World Cup construction projects.
"Three years ago, I went to Doha to look at what all the fuss was about for myself when it came to workers' conditions in Qatar," he said in March. "I had heard all the tales. But nothing prepares you for seeing it for yourself. It was worse than I imagined."
Problems surrounding Qatar's World Cup do not stop at the campaign to win staging rights. The report highlights the country's failure to deliver the promised "revolutionary air-cooling systems" within its stadium plans and the associated health risks to athletes. It also claims Fifa has been complicit with efforts to play down the concerns over the "modern-day slavery" prevalent in construction projects.
The Australian businessman has previously explained his campaigns as a quest for transparency across sport. “The bottom line is that if the people in charge of sport are only interested in their own personal power games and money, then all the other great [sporting] stuff doesn’t happen. There is an integral link between the two that binds them,” Mr Fuller the founder of the brand Skins, told an interviewer in 2016.
Fifa responded to a request for comment on the dossier from The National, making reference to the Garcia report into corruption into the organisation. That report mentions Mr Grondona on 359 separate instances and examines the allegations of kickbacks from Qatar he faced before his death. It does not make mention of the specifics highlighted by the Foundation.
The organisation, based in Switzerland, launched a new complaints procedure for activists and journalists attempting to cover the World Cup on Tuesday. The procedure is centred around a website to log problems. A statement said hosts would be obliged to give undertakings for unhindered access but not until the 2026 World Cup.
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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.”
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Company name: Marefa Digital
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Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
