London: Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid team ran a secret "black operations" propaganda campaign in 2010 to sabotage rival bids in violation of Fifa rules, the UK's Sunday Times has reported.
The Sunday Times claims whistleblower e-mails show the bid team paid New York-based PR firm BLJ Worldwide as well as former CIA agents to spread "fake propaganda" concerning main rivals Australia and the US during their campaign to host the 2022 competition.
'Zero support' strategy
Qatar's strategy, it was reported, was to recruit influential individuals in order to attack bids by their countries in the media and government, creating the impression there was "zero support" to host the World Cup among the population, the paper said.
One of the core criteria considered by Fifa to pick a host, was that the bids should have a strong backing from domestic populations.
Such actions went as far as planning a resolution for US Congress on the "harmful" effects of the American World Cup proposition during the week of the vote, as well as approaching and paying a US professor $9,000 to compose a report on the economic burden the competition would present.
The report states that Qatar clearly broke one of the Fifa rules — which state that bidders are prohibited from making "any written or oral statement of any kind, whether adverse or otherwise, about the bids or candidatures of any other member association".
Denial
Qatar tournament organisers denied the allegations.
One of the leaked emails show that it was sent to Qatar's deputy bid leader Ali Al Thawadi, and allegedly shows the state was aware of plots to spread "poison" against other bidders.
Qatar won the right to host the cup in December 2010, against bids from United States, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
The Sunday Times claimed the documents were leaked to the paper by a whistleblower who worked with the Qatar bid on the World Cup campaign.
The Qatar bid team has been previously accused of corruption, but was cleared following a two-year Fifa inquiry.
*Inputs from agencies
