Sepp Blatter
The Gulf state signed away its rights, which now means that football's governing
body is free to ordera new vote.
Qatar will not be able to mount a legal challenge to Fifa if football's
governing body strips it of the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. As
controversy continues to rage over allegations of corruption surrounding the bid
process, it has emerged that Qatar agreed to sign away its right to take any
form of legal action against Fifa when it made its original tender for the
tournament in 2010.
The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that a mechanism is available to
football's governing body to order a new vote whereby infringements of its code
of ethics are cited.
Qatar, which denies all corruption allegations, is now facing a major fight
to hang on to the World Cup, and the subject is certain to feature strongly when
Fifa holds its congress in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, one day before the 2014 World
Cup opens.
It had been assumed that one reason Fifa might fail to order a revote for
2012 was fear of legal action by Qatar. But the legal officer of one of the
bidding nations told The IoS: "All the bidding countries had to sign a
registration document in which they agreed to be bound by Fifa's code of ethics.
In a normal contract with an organisation based in Zurich, you would expect the
agreement to be subject to Swiss law.
Qatar’s proposed
stadium
'But Fifa's code makes it clear that all disputes are
decided by the appeals committee of Fifa's ethics committee. The appeals committee can be taken
to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration in Sport. But this is a special
arbitration body for sport, not a court of law.
''So should Fifa decide to have a revote, Qatar cannot take Fifa to a Swiss
court. All bidding countries knew they were giving up their legal rights when
bidding for the World Cup. But so keen are countries to get the World Cup, they
happily agreed to do so."
This did not seem to matter at the time of the bidding as nobody expected to
Qatar to win. Since then, the decision has proved so controversial that Fifa
hired former US attorney Michael Garcia to investigate both the 2022 vote and
the 2018 vote in which Russia beat England.
Mr Garcia will complete his report
tomorrow, although it will not be submitted to Fifa until next month.
However, this carefully planned Fifa timetable has been jeopardised following
extensive revelations that Mohamed Bin Hammam, a Qatari who was then a Fifa
vice-president, had allegedly paid bribes totalling £3m to football
administrators round the world to influence the vote.
Fair play: Mohamed Bin Hammam
Mr Hammam was also a member of the Fifa executive that decided on Qatar in
preference to the US, Japan and Australia. He has since been banned for life
from Fifa for offences not connected with the bid. Qatar World Cup organisers
insist that Mr Hammam had nothing to do with their bid and that they
scrupulously followed Fifa's code of ethics.
However, according to well-informed sources, Fifa could now use this very
code of ethics to deny Qatar the prize. Crucial to such a decision would be
clause two of the code. This says: "Officials shall show an ethical attitude
when performing their duties. They shall pledge to behave in a dignified manner.
They shall behave and act with complete credibility and integrity."
One official from another bidding country, who has given evidence to Mr
Garcia, told The IoS: "This is Fifa's version of the FA's catch-all clause of
'bringing the game into disrepute', which has often helped the FA bring charges
when there was no specific evidence.
"Fifa could order a revote saying that, while there may be no direct link
between Hammam and Qatar, the whole process lacked integrity. And to justify
this, Fifa could also use the fact that its own evaluation report said a World
Cup in Qatar in the summer when temperatures can rise to 50C was high risk, the
only bidding country to be so classified."
Some inkling of Fifa's thinking may emerge on Wednesday when the organisation
holds its congress in Sao Paulo. Before the latest revelations, this was
expected to be another celebration for Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, with the
78-year-old announcing that he would serve a fifth term when elections are held
next year. However, now there is strong pressure for Uefa to find a candidate who offers a credible alternative to the Swiss.
Mihir Bose
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