Bribery allegations "pure invention" claims CAF President

By Andrew Warshaw

May 11 – African football chief Issa Hayatou today became the latest FIFA powerbroker to deny corruption allegations made against him by a British Parliamentary Committee.

Hayatou called allegations that he was paid for vote for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid as “pure invention” and reserved the right to sue “those propagating this campaign of denigration,” the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in a statement on its website.

CAF said Hayatou would cooperate with any investigation by FIFA which wants a swift resolution to the latest spate of corruption claims involving six of its Executive Committee.

Hayatou and fellow FIFA Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma of the Ivory Coast were allegedly paid $1.5 million (£917,000) to vote for Qatar, according to evidence submitted to the Parliamentary Committee by The Sunday Times and made public yesterday.

“The President of the Confederation of African Football Issa Hayatou has categorically denied allegations of corruption brought against him before Parliament in Britain,” CAF said.

“This kind of reporting to create and propagate false information to destroy his reputation, leadership and integrity will not succeed.

“The President of CAF said all these accusations brought against him are pure invention and an attempt to discredit him.”

Hayatou was “anxiously waiting for the so-called proof” from The Sunday Times, the statement added.

Qatar beat the United States by a landslide in the final round of voting for the right to host the 2022 tournament, the biggest ever upset in bidding history and the first World Cup to be staged in the Middle East.

Qatar’s Football Association has also denied the allegations that Hayatou and Anouma were paid money, calling them “serious and baseless” and said they would “remain unproven because they are false.”

The Parliamentary Committee identified a man working for Hayatou and the Qataris as Amadou Diallo.

Mike Lee, the former communications director of London 2012 who helped mastermind Qatar’s victory, told the Committee he had never heard of Diallo.

There have nevertheless been strong links between African football’s heirarchy and Qatar for some time.

Last year, Qatar used a clever but perfectly legal marketing loophole to exclusively sponsor the CAF Congress, paying $1.8 million (£1.1 million) for the right and preventing any of its rivals for 2022 from officially addressing delegates.

“In return, [the] Qatar 2022 Bid Committee was given the exclusive rights to address the general assembly and make presentations to members,” CAF said.

“This sponsorship was approved by the Executive Committee of CAF…an agreement was signed between the two parties.”

Hayatou is already under investigation from the International Olympic Committee’s Ethics Commission following claims on the BBC television programme Panorama that he received a payment of 100,000 French francs in 1995 from the now defunct marketing company ISL.

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