Platini: FIFA must re-vote if corruption proven

PARIS: Michel Platini thinks FIFA must hold another vote for the 2022 World Cup if corruption allegations against Qatar’s winning bid are proven.
The UEFA president told sports newspaper L’Equipe that he doesn’t regret his own vote for Qatar and still thinks the Gulf nation “was the right choice for FIFA and for world football.” “But if instances of corruption are proved, there will need to be a new vote and sanctions,” Platini said.
A FIFA prosecutor plans by next week to wrap up his investigation of the 2010 votes for Qatar and 2018 World Cup host Russia.
On a personal note, Platini claimed that “somebody, something” is plotting to discredit his possible candidacy for the FIFA presidency.
Media reports this week cast doubts on Platini’s links to now disgraced Qatari official Mohamed bin Hammam. London’s Daily Telegraph alleged Platini had “a secret meeting” before the 2010 vote with Bin Hammam, suspected of vote-buying and other irregularities and whom FIFA subsequently expelled in 2012.
Platini told L’Equipe it was simply breakfast with a work colleague. Bin Hammam, like Platini, was a member of the FIFA board.
“I read ‘Platini corrupt?’ in all the newspapers, on news agency wires, on blogs. Honestly, it hurts,” Platini said.
He added: “I saw this colleague 10,000 times in 15 years. Why would I have had a secret meeting with him? I now realize that in the background there is somebody, something, people organizing all this. I can feel it.” “For a year now, everything is being done to discredit me, regardless of what I do. It is easy to feed people who spend their time denigrating you on social networks. There are firms that specialize in this. It’s not hard, you simply have to pay.” Platini stopped short of accusing FIFA and its president Sepp Blatter of involvement.
“I have no proof,” he said. “I don’t know who is behind all this. But I think lots of interests are at stake, for those at FIFA, for those who want to be there” and “without doubt also for those who want us to overturn the attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.” Platini said, however, that none of this will influence his decision on whether to challenge Blatter for the FIFA presidency. Platini said he will announce in August, after the World Cup in Brazil, whether he will run in the May 2015 election.
Blatter is looking to next week’s FIFA congress to support his own ambitions for another four-year term.
FIFA investigator Michael Garcia has met Qatari officials as part of a corruption probe into the vote which gave the Gulf state the 2022 World Cup.
US lawyer Garcia met a Qatari delegation in a Muscat hotel and the encounter was to continue Thursday, a source close to the talks told AFP.
The Qatari World Cup organizing committee delegation had “four members, including a high-level official,” the source said.

England ready

Prime Minister David Cameron dropped the strongest hint yet that Britain could offer to host the 2022 soccer World Cup if Qatar loses it, saying on Thursday England would be “happy to find a home” for one of its traditional sports.
World soccer governing body FIFA is investigating the bids that awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and the 2018 Cup to Russia, including allegations that bribes were paid to secure the Qatari bid. Several top football officials have said Qatar could be stripped of the tournament if corruption is found.
When asked at a G7 news conference in Brussels alongside US President Barack Obama whether Qatar should lose its right to hold the tournament — and if Britain would be ready to host it instead — Cameron said: “On the issue of football, we should let the investigation run its course. But of course England is the home of football, as it is the home and inventor of many sports: tennis, rugby, golf, skiing, table tennis, cricket ...” Cameron was interrupted by Obama, who quipped that baseball and basketball might not be British inventions. The British prime minister continued: “So we are always happy to find a home for these sports.”