Argentina won the World Cup in 2022 after a wait of 36 long years. This was so far the biggest accolade in Lionel Messi’s trophy cabinet. However now it seems to be the threat of being tainted by “corruption”. as the former FIFA executive is at the risk of being arrested for corruption charges.
A French judge issued the warrant due to corruption allegations against Mohamed bin Hammam. He played a pivotal role in awarding the 2022 World Cup to his home nation, Qatar. Argentina won the Qatar 2022 World Cup after a wait of 36 years, but it seems that their title is under threat of being tainted by corruption.
Earlier in September, it was reported that bribes of $300 million were used to take the biggest soccer tournament to the Middle Eastern country. Qatar beat the United States as host after a long voting process.
According to reports from multiple news outlets, the former FIFA executive gave a series of bribes to other soccer officials to support Qatar during the 2022 World Cup bidding process. E-mail evidence was gathered that backed these claims.
🚨 Mohamed Bin Hammam is wanted in France over an international arrest warrant! ⚖️
The Qatari is facing accusations of “acts of private corruption linked to the awarding of the Football World Cup to Qatar.” 💰🇶🇦
(Source: @lequipe) pic.twitter.com/vMAluFJ0GK
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) September 26, 2023
The FIFA ethics committee banned Bin Hammam from all soccer-related dealings for a lifetime in 2011. However, the former AFC executive appealed the decision. A court reversed the decision due to a lack of evidence. Nevertheless, just months later, FIFA put the ban back into place. A scathing report on allegations of corruption involving Bin Hammam was released in 2014.
Former FIFA President claims choosing Qatar for the 2022 World Cup was a ‘mistake’
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter once claimed that it was a mistake on the organization’s end to choose Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. He mentioned that his decision was a result of extreme political pressure.
In an interview back in 2022, Blatter stated that handing the tournament to the Gulf country was reportedly because of the actions of the former UEFA president, Michel Platini. He mentioned that Platini was under immense pressure from France’s ex-president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Blatter said, “For me it is clear. Qatar is a mistake. The choice was bad. At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022″.
He further added,”It would have been a gesture of peace if the two longstanding political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other. Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his UEFA team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth”.
Sepp Blatter admits awarding Qatar the World Cup was a mistake 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/gR7WtoSzJv
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 8, 2022
Although he didn’t mention the issue of human rights, Blatter mentioned that the reason he said that Qatar was a bad idea was because it was too small as a country, and he thought that soccer and the World Cup were too big for it.