With the planet gearing up for the world’s biggest football event, the World Cup, Netflix has released a bombastic four-part documentary, in which it presents the history of FIFA and exposes the entity’s already notorious corruption schemes. Qatar’s choice to host the 2022 World Cup is one of the topics discussed in the documentary series.
The Netflix documentary series listened to the views of whistleblowers, experts and former FIFA officials on a range of topics. But more important was how Russia, which hosted the 2018 World Cup, and Qatar won the rights to stage the World Cup, with corruption allegations swirling throughout the trials.
In 2010, when the choice of who would host the 2018 and 2022 cups took place, England appeared as the overwhelming favorites to host the 2018 cup, while the United States were seen as the favorites to host the world tournament in 2022. proposal was by far the best for the 2022 World Cup,” says Sunil Gulati, president of the US bid for the 2022 World Cup, in the documentary.
At the time when the host country for the 2022 World Cup was chosen, the choice of Qatar was hotly debated and viewed negatively from several aspects. The documentary “FIFA Schemes” highlights some of them: the country has had profound problems of non-respect for human rights and an average temperature of 41 degrees between the months of June and July, when the World Cup is traditionally played.
Also, according to the documentary, Qatar had been labeled “high risk” for hosting the World Cup. “It was unexpected, competing with the United States and Japan, and the technical report on the bid had been quite negative,” CNN anchor Amanda Davies said in the documentary.
Guido Tognoni, former adviser to Sepp Blatter (former FIFA president), commented on the choice of Qatar in the docuseries. “The choice of Qatar is very difficult to explain. For FIFA it is a disaster, especially since it was in the spotlight for corruption. Hence the brilliant idea of voting for Qatar came to the Executive Committee. I always say that anyone who blames Qatar for hosting the World Cup should blame FIFA, because FIFA is the system. The system is FIFA.”
But what is the reason why FIFA chooses Qatar, even with all these problems, and even agrees to change the season in which the Cup is played to adapt to the country’s temperatures? The answer, according to “FIFA Schemes”, is money.
Why did FIFA choose Qatar?
According to former employee turned whistleblower Phaedra Almajid, the secretary general of the Qatar 2022 bid Hassan Al-Thawadi has held talks and given money and other benefits to FIFA Executive Committee (ExCo) members in a bid to influence the their votes.
This committee, which has since been called the FIFA Council, was responsible for determining which country would host the World Cup.
Almajid explains in the documentary series that during a 2010 CAF general assembly in Luanda, before the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, Hassan approached Issa Hayatou, then president of the CAF of Cameroon, Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast and Amos Adamu of Nigeria – all members of the powerful committee.
Almajid reveals that Hassan offered the three executives $1 million, disguised as a pledge to improve football in their countries. The amount was then increased to $1.5 million USD.
“That’s right, the price went up to $1.5 million. Sounds simple, and it was simple. We give that money to your federation and you give us the vote, and thanks, see you later. And, one by one, we did the same with Anouma and Adamu. Each member was offered $1.5 million in exchange for their vote,” Phaedra told the series.
Phaedra anonymously offered this report to the British Sunday Times newspaper, which denounced Qatar’s purchase of the World Cup. Hassan Al Thawadi, on the other hand, denies the accusation, as do others against the country. “My reaction, especially to the situation, Phaedra? In both, it was frustration. They are fake and have facts to prove they are fake.
Additionally, the documentary deals with other types of political negotiations, which would have resulted in trades that were beneficial to voters and their countries if they had voted for Qatar. Brazil, for example, appears in the documentary with a statement by then CBF president Ricardo Teixeira who said his vote for Qatar was finalized in a meeting with the Emir.
“The Emir of Qatar has come to Brazil. He stayed for some time, he visited President Lula, who also thought Qatar was a good solution. We had lunch in Rio de Janeiro. There was me, the Emir of Qatar, João Havelange. There were eight or nine people there. We decided there that we would support Qatar,” Teixeira said. “And favors are exchanged in any area of life. But bribes for doing something I never received.”
The documentary series “FIFA Schemes” is available on Netflix.
The post ‘FIFA Schemes’: Netflix series reveals how Qatar won the 2022 World Cup first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
