The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup by Heidi Blake & Jonathan Calvert

Author:Heidi Blake & Jonathan Calvert [Blake, Heidi & Calvert, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, True Crime, Sports, Football, Corruption, Middle East
ISBN: 9781471149368
Google: oFW6BQAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00QNW8K6U
Barnesnoble: B00QNW8K6U
Goodreads: 24907321
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2015-04-22T23:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

Only God Knows What You Do for the Brothers

The World Cup ballot was now just two weeks away, and it was time for one last jamboree before the fate of Qatar’s 2022 bid was sealed. The more modern members of Doha’s high society had donned their finest designer outfits, the traditionalists were in their richest robes, and all were heading to the Al-Khalifa Stadium in their Porsches and Baby Bentleys for a thriller. Qatar was hosting a football match between two great teams: Brazil and Argentina. It was a contest that would have graced any final of the World Cup and that was the whole point.

The friendly match was the glittering centrepiece of a week-long sports conference to extol the virtues of bringing the globe’s most prestigious tournament to the Gulf state in 12 years’ time. Journalists from all round the world had been invited to view the spectacle on the temperate winter evening of 17 November. Mohamed bin Hammam captured the mood of cheerful optimism as he penned an open letter to the official figureheads of his country’s World Cup campaign ahead of the event, even slipping in a reference to the king of pop. ‘You are a phenomenon deserving to be respected and supported. You are about to write history,’ he raved. ‘You are, as Michael Jackson sang, the WORLD. You are so close. You can do it!’

Bin Hammam was eagerly awaiting the chance to see such gods of the game performing on his home soil. But the events on the field were of secondary importance. The match was an opportunity to offer his supporters one last big junket before the ballot. Amadou Diallo had been given the role as ‘coordinator’ of the guest list, which, of course, meant it was well attended.

More than 20 presidents of African football federations were flown in to Doha at Bin Hammam’s expense and put up in the Ritz Carlton alongside a similar number of Asian federation heads. Among them was Colonel Djibrilla Hima Hamidou, president of the Niger FA, who had enjoyed Bin Hammam’s hospitality at the South African World Cup and afterwards had been very thankful to Diallo for arranging $50,000 to be paid to his federation from the billionaire’s slush fund account at Kemco. He checked in at the Ritz alongside Ganesh Thapa, president of the Nepal FA, who had received £100,000 for ‘business promotion’ from the same slush fund a couple of months earlier.

As ever, with such a large group of people there were logistical problems which, inevitably, fell on the ever-patient Najeeb Chirakal to sort out. Hassan Bility, the Liberian president, was affronted when his wife was asked to hand over her credit card on check-in at the Ritz. ‘Please note that my wife [was] requested to make payment for the Hotel Today before being allowed to enter the hotel. Pls follow it up and handle them for me,’ he ordered Chirakal.

Most of the guests were as thankful as ever for their Qatari friend’s generosity. None could

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.