‘Leaked’ Emails ‘Prove’ FIFA Officials Were Bribed for Qatar 2022, Auction Rerun Demanded

FIFA faces demands of a rerun of the bidding for the 2022 World Cup after the selection of Qatar as the hosting nation is surrounded with "proven" bribing controversy.

A former top football official from Qatar allegedly paid $5 million to win the bid in favour of his country. The Sunday Times revealed the "Plot to buy the World Cup" as a cache of leaked emails showed that there had been secret payments which helped the Western Asian gulf country win the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, called FIFA as a "bit of a cesspit." According to The Guardian, Macdonald suggested the esteemed organisation apparently committed a "very serious crime" if leaked documents are to be believed. "The idea of another voting session with all this money sloshing around is almost too much to bear. But on the other hand, if I can pretend to be a prosecutor again for a minute, this is evidence of a very serious crime. And the fact that the allegation is that they used dollars, US dollars, means that the justice department in Washington has jurisdiction over this ... the United States of course are in the World Cup finals. If the justice department started to take an interest in this, I think FIFA would feel the heat very, very quickly," he said.

There were millions of "secret" documents including letters, bank transfers and emails that would allegedly prove that Mohamed Bin Hammam paid FIFA officials $5 million in lieu of their "support" during the auction. The former FIFA executive member for Qatar and former president of Asian Football Confederation allegedly paid slush funds to bribe top football officials.

The chairman of the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee, John Whittingdale, demanded that FIFA should hold the auction again as "it would be impossible" to dodge the allegations. "It is a further demonstration of the need for a complete change in the way that FIFA operates but also that there is now an overwhelming case that the decision as to where the World Cup should be held in 2022 should be run again," he said.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@IBTimes.com.au