‘BOMBER’ ESCAPES QATAR MESS

MBABANE – National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS) President Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa can heave a sigh of relief, as findings of the FIFA commission of enquiry into the ‘Qatar bribery scam’ will not be made public.

This is much against expectations.
The likeable NFAS chief was implicated alongside a host of other football leaders about four months ago during the World Cup, which was staged in Brazil for allegedly having benefitted albeit illegally from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) executives.

The damning report, which rocked the Federation of International Football Association’s (FIFA) hierarchy, alleged that Mthethwa, alongside a number of presidents from different member associations and federations, were given lump sums of money which resulted in their respective votes leading to the 2022 World Cup decision on the host country.
A report from the Sunday Times revealed that the eagerly anticipated enquiry will remain a secret even though this has not gone down well with some members of the FIFA executive.

“This means that the accusations of bribery in the bidding process for the World Cup will remain unanswered; at least publicly. This has infuriated Garcia and John Whittingle, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee,” quoted the biggest selling newspaper in the UK.
The article also revealed that head of the enquiry Joachim-Eckert is a judge by profession. He is reported to have told the media that only he and his deputy will read the report, alleging that FIFA rules prohibit him from showing the report even to FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

The article then quotes Whittingle criticising the decision not to make the report a public document.
“The one thing we have always been told by FIFA is that there would be proper investigations and we should wait for the Garcia report. But if the Garcia report is going to be buried so that we have no idea what the conclusions are, it will leave the reputation of FIFA in pieces.”


“It confirms what we have long suspected, that all FIFA is interested in is burying this whole matter and sweeping the evidence under the carpet,” the article quotes Whittingle.
The NFAS Chief, Mthethwa, politely asked not to commit himself on the matter when reached for comment yesterday. He assured, however, that with time, he will issue a statement.   

BRIEFLY ABOUT THE QATAR SCANDAL

The release of documents by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, detailing fresh allegations about bribes changing hands in order to secure Qatar the 2022 World Cup, has ramped up the controversy about the award of the competition to the small desert nation with little history of soccer.

Such accusations were rife from the moment President Sepp Blatter announced Qatar as having won a vote among FIFA’s executive committee in December 2010.

The scrutiny has been such that FIFA, no stranger to allegations of impropriety, have even launched their own investigation, led by former New York attorney Michael Garcia.

 From their base in Zurich, Switzerland, FIFA has thus far been allowed to run almost as a law unto themselves. Such an attitude is perhaps understandable, given that there has been little to suggest FIFA’s flagship product has yet been tainted by a widespread suspicion about the activities of the organisation.

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