(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Qatar rejected claims that the internationally banned ex-football official Mohammad bin Hammam was linked to its winning bid to host the football 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Bin Hammam, a Qatari who was banned for life from any international football activities or bodies by global governing body FIFA, has been accused by British newspaper, The Sunday Times, of bribing officials to gain his country's right to host the global event.
He was head of the Asian Football Confederation and was a member of FIFA's 24-man executive committee until 2011.
Qatar's 2022 World Cup organising committee, which goes by the name of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said that "Mohammad bin Hammam had no official or non-official role in the Qatar 2022 (World Cup) bidding committee, and so is the case with any other of the members of FIFA's executive committee." The Qatari committee had to persuade Bin Hammam of the benefits of its World Cup bid, added the statement, which went on to stress complete cooperation with FIFA investigations into the affair.
It added, "we vehemently deny all allegations of wrongdoing. We will take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar's bid and our lawyers are looking into this matter.
"Our bid's winning of the right to host the tournament was achieved due to our conviction that it is one of the best and most distinct. It is time that the Middle East be allowed to host this international event for the first time in the competition's history," the statement underlined.
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