The legal grounds for FIFA to take away the 2018 and 2022 World Cup from Russia and Qatar, respectively, do not exist, according to soccer’s world governing body.
After the chief of FIFA’s Compliance Committee told a Swiss newspaper Russia and Qatar could lose their World Cup bids should evidence show bribes won them the votes that gave them the right to host the event, FIFA issued a statement immediately doubling down.
“Should evidence be present that the awarding to Qatar and Russia only came about with bought votes, then the awarding could be void,” Domenico Scala, the head of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee, said Monday.
“Russia and Qatar were awarded the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups by democratic vote of the Executive Committee. Based on expert opinions and available facts, FIFA has no legal grounds to take away the hosting of the FIFA World Cup from Russia and Qatar,” the FIFA statement said. “We will not speculate on possible scenarios and therefore have no further comments for the time being.
There were already questions of foul play when FIFA chose Russia and Qatar to host the world’s biggest single-sport event. Those questions are even louder now that FIFA is in the middle of a scandal that spans decades and involves millions of dollars of bribery and corruption allegations.
The U.S. has indicted 14 people, including nine top FIFA officials, on corruption charges; and more may be on the way.
Leaders of both Russia and Qatar have pushed back at allegations they received their World Cup bids inappropriately and will continue to prepare to organize the event.
(h/t CNN)
