{"id":3646,"date":"2011-02-08T12:42:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T08:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=3646"},"modified":"2011-02-08T12:46:32","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T08:46:32","slug":"fifa-concedes-traded-votes-in-world-cup-bids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-sports-news-and-analysis\/fifa-concedes-traded-votes-in-world-cup-bids\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Concedes Traded Votes in World Cup Bids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/blatter_qatar.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3647\" title=\"blatter_qatar\" src=\"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/blatter_qatar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to a report in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/sport\/football\/teams\/england\/8309934\/Fifa-president-Sepp-Blatter-admits-Spanish-and-Qatar-World-Cup-bid-teams-did-trade-votes.html\">The Daily Telegraph <\/a>FIFA President Sepp Blatter has for the first time publicly stated that Qatar and Spain and Portugal colluded to trade votes for their  respective 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids.<\/p>\n<p>The British newspaper said Blatter disclosed the collusion in an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/worldservice\/sport\/2011\/02\/110207_blatter.shtml\">interview with the BBC<\/a>. An online BBC excerpt of the interview makes no mention of the admission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be honest, there was a bundle of votes between Spain and Qatar,\u201d  the Telegraph quoted Blatter as telling the BBC. \u201cBut it was a nonsense.  It was there but it didn\u2019t work, not for one and not for the other  side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If true, Blatter\u2019s confirmation raises question why FIFA officials have  repeatedly said that their investigation into allegations of collusion  between Qatar and Spain and Portugal had produced no evidence of a deal  to trade votes.<\/p>\n<p>It is likely to also spark challenges to the awarding of the 2022  tournament to Qatar and perhaps also Russia\u2019s winning of the 2018 bid.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar competed against the United States, Australia, Japan and South  Korea while Russia and Spain\/Portugal were fighting off rival bids from  England and a combination of The Netherlands and Belgium. England was  particularly bitter about its loss.<\/p>\n<p>The alleged deal between Qatar and Spain and Portugal is believed to  have involved seven of the 22 FIFA executive committee votes last  December. The Iberian bid won seven votes in two rounds of voting before  it was eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>If Blatter\u2019s admission is correct, those votes would account for seven  of the 12 votes that won Qatar its right to host the world\u2019s biggest  sporting event.<\/p>\n<p>It was not immediately clear why Blatter chose to disclose the collusion. One explanation may be that it would weaken the <a href=\"http:\/\/mideastsoccer.blogspot.com\/2011\/02\/fifa-president-blatter-concedes-round.html\">campaign by Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed Bin Hammam<\/a>, a Qatari national with close ties to the Gulf state\u2019s ruling family, to end Blatter\u2019s 12-year tenure as FIFA president.<\/p>\n<p>Blatter is up for re-election in May.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mideastsoccer.blogspot.com\/2011\/01\/gloves-are-off-bin-hammam-calls-for-end.html\">Bin Hammam has argued that Blatter needed to be removed<\/a> to ensure greater transparency within FIFA and repair the soccer world  body\u2019s image tarnished by repeated charges of corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JAMES DORSEY: If Blatter\u2019s admission is correct, those votes would account for seven of the 12 votes that won Qatar its right to host the world\u2019s biggest sporting event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":3647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,7],"tags":[3886,2998,2745,2064,3199,319,3115,338,1106,351,4474,3704,1808,18307,161,18344,318,1105,2139,2289,18337,18302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}