I suppose the appalling shock to the soul that was occasioned by the allegation that Qatar bribed its way to hosting the 2022 World Cup was exceeded only by the startling suggestion that it was Fifa’s African delegates who trousered nearly all of the illicit money on offer. Who’d have thought, huh? The money was doled out by the Qatari crook Mohammed Bin Hammam, according to leaked emails obtained by the Sunday Times.
Mo did not find bribing the Africans terribly difficult, it would seem. My favourite of the various requests for money from these venal and grasping and not terribly bright Third World panjandrums was that of a chap called Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa, of Swaziland: ‘I am in dire need of finance in the region of $30,000. This arises from the fact that I have just retired from politics.’
If I were Izetta Wesley of Liberia, mind, I’d be a bit miffed by these latest revelations. ‘I am so happy that I have a brother and friend that I can always depend on,’ she gushed, before being passed just $10,000 as a sweetener. Maybe it’s because Izetta’s a woman and there was Arab sexism at work in the Qatari bung department; it was probably an affront to Mo that he had to deal with a woman at all.
Rather larger sums of money were paid to companies associated with the reliably revolting Caribbean football boss Jack Warner, who responded with the email: ‘Allah is great!’ He sure is.
I call Mo a ‘crook’, by the way, but ought to point out that he has never been convicted in any court of any crime, to my knowledge. However, he has twice been given life bans from any involvement in football by Fifa following revelations of ‘conflicts of interest’ during his tenure as president of the Asian Football Confederation.
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