Qatar was &#39;confident&#39; on 2022 World Cup probe

Riyadh - Qatar has never doubted the "clean" record by which it won
the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, a top organising committee
official said Thursday after FIFA cleared Doha of corruption.

The tiny gas-rich state also voiced readiness to help in hosting the
2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
"We were confident that any impartial investigation was to show that
our record was clean and contains no irregularities," Hassan al-
Thawadi, secretary-general of the Qatar 2022 organising committee,
told AFP.

"We were confident of ourselves and of the work we had done," added
al-Thawadi, speaking in Riyadh where world football leaders, including
FIFA president Sepp Blatter, were gathered for the opening evening
of the Gulf Cup of Nations.

The ethics committee of the football's world governing body FIFA on
Thursday cleared Qatar and Russia of corruption and ruled out a re-
vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments despite widespread
allegations of wrongdoing.
Even though the report had admitted a series of worrying episodes in
the bidding for the tournament, as well as the 2018 World Cup in
Russia, it said there was not enough evidence to justify reopening
the process.

In a break with FIFA tradition, the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were
awarded at the same time, in 2010, leading to claims of horsetrading
in the bidding process.
As concerns grew, FIFA appointed Michael Garcia, a former US federal
prosecutor, to head up the inquiry into the 2018 and 2022
tournaments.
His 350-page report was handed to FIFA on September 5.

It summed up a year-long investigation that involved interviewing
more than 75 witnesses and compiling a dossier with more than
200,000 pages and audio interviews.
The main controversy revolved around Qatar and how it was awarded
the 2022 competition which was initially to be played in the summer
when temperatures reach the upper-40s Celsius.

England violated bidding rules
It also considered claims by international labour organisations that
working conditions for migrant workers employed in the construction
of the stadia were less than satisfactory.

Amnesty International on Wednesday criticised the "woefully
insufficient" steps taken by Qatar so far to end abuses of migrant
workers in the Gulf country.
Meanwhile, head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Shaikh
Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, hailed the results of the probe.

"I am satisfied that Qatar has been absolved of any misconduct in
their bid for the 2022 World Cup," he said.
President of the Association of National Olympic Committees, Sheikh
Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, also praised the outcome, adding that the
Qatari "record is successful and honours the whole region".
Despite Qatar escaping a re-vote, Thursday's ethics committee
report still raised serious concerns over its campaign.

The report again probed the role of Qatari Mohammed bin Hammam, a
former member of the FIFA executive committee who was banned
from all football activity in 2012.
In June, Britain's Sunday Times alleged that bin Hammam paid more
than $5 million (four million euros) to officials around the world
before the 2010 vote to drum up support for the tiny Gulf state.

However, the report states that payments were designed to bolster
his bid for the FIFA presidency in 2011 rather than to manipulate
Qatar's 2022 World Cup hopes.
The FIFA ethics committee meanwhile said that England had violated
bidding rules in its failed attempt to host the 2018 tournament, which
was awarded to Russia.
The accusation was immediately rejected by England's Football
Association which insisted it had conducted a "transparent bid."

Qatar's decision to sponsor the 2010 Confederation of African
Football (CAF) Congress in Angola to the tune of $1.8 million was also
brought into question during the FIFA investigation.
"It remained unclear how much the event did cost. The Investigatory
Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee concluded that this
connection, when viewed in the context of the lack of transparency
in the record, created a negative impression," added the report.
"However, the circumstances presently relevant were not suited to
affect the integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018/2022."

Meanwhile, head of the Doha's Football Association Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani said in a statement that "if officially
asked, Qatar is ready to offer any help in hosting the African Cup due
to its strong relation with Issa Hayatou, president of the
Confederation of African Football."
Morocco had said since early October that its call for a postponement
was due to the deadly Ebola pandemic, but CAF, lost patience with the
North Africans and threw them out of the competition, with a heavy
fine likely to follow.

- AFP