Riyadh: Foreign ministers from the Gulf states yesterday hit out at the “hateful campaign” directed against Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.
In a strongly-worded statement following a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, Qatar’s neighbours affirmed their full support for the tournament, which would be the first World Cup hosted in the Middle East.
“The ministerial council has expressed great condemnation of the hateful campaign that is trying to discredit the merit of Qatar in hosting the 2022 World Cup,” read the statement.
“It has insisted that the GCC countries stand with Qatar in solidarity and with full support to the hosting of this International sporting event, a hosting that Qatar has won with great merit and through a honest competition as testified by everybody.”
On Sunday, a FIFA official said Qatar could lose the World Cup if allegations of wide scale bribery could be proved.
“If evidence exists that Qatar and Russia received the (World Cup) awards only thanks to bribes, then the awards could be annulled,” head of FIFA’s auditing and compliance committee Domenico Scala told the Swiss Sonntagszeitung weekly.
Scala added, however, that no such evidence had been provided so far.
Qatar has maintained that its bid remains unaffected by the latest allegations.
Yesterday’s statement from the GCC — comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates as well as Qatar — followed a call 24 hours earlier for media in the region to “counter” criticism of the 2022 tournament.
GCC Information Ministers meeting in the Qatari capital Doha urged media to “counter all those who seek to question the right of the State of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup”.
Meanwhile, soccer chiefs in the developing world have said that a German proposal to change the one country, one vote system within FIFA would not only be undemocratic, but also deal a major blow to nations struggling to develop the game at home.
The views of officials in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean reflect a broad backlash against proposed reforms put forward by Germany this week to give soccer power-houses a greater say in who runs FIFA as it grapples with allegations of bribery.
“If tomorrow one member association is going to be more equal than the other, then of course that is going to raise serious issues, and that would not be good for world football and that would not be good for FIFA,” said Pakistan soccer chief Faisal Saleh Hayat.
AGENCIES
Lausanne: FIFA will meet on July 20 to decide the date on which Sepp Blatter’s successor as President will be selected, the embattled body said yesterday.
“The extraordinary FIFA Executive Committee meeting to set the date for the extraordinary elective Congress will take place on 20 July 2015 in Zürich,” said a statement.
“During the meeting, the agenda for the elective Congress will be finalized and approved. The extraordinary elective Congress will take place in Zurich between December 2015 and February 2016 as announced by the FIFA President on 2 June 2015.”
Blatter, who has been in charge of FIFA since 1998, has already announced he will quit after the organisation was engulfed by a series of widespread corruption allegations. AFP
