According to the UK's The Sunday Times, officials of Qatar's Al Jazeera TV channel have signed a very valuable contract. Accordingly, Al Jazeera agreed to pay a fee of $100 million to a FIFA account in the event of Qatar's victory in the 2010 vote.
Three years later, FIFA received another $480 million offer from Qatar. Qatar paid FIFA nearly $1 billion to host the 2022 World Cup.
If the information given by The Sunday Times is correct, Qatar has violated FIFA regulations. Under this regulation, no country that hosts the World Cup can offer FIFA financial benefits in exchange for votes.
However, Sepp Blatter, then FIFA President, and General Secretary Jerome Valcke, agreed to the contract just a week before Qatar qualified for the 2022 World Cup after winning against the US, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
Qatar's victory was a shock at that time because this small country in the Middle East had only 2.6 million people. In addition, Qatar does not have the infrastructure and football tradition to deserve to host FIFA's biggest football event. That is not to mention the hot weather in Qatar, a reason why FIFA decided to hold the World Cup in November and December last year.
It is known that Al Jazeera, also known as Bein Sports, is owned by the Qatari prince Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is behind Qatar's 2022 World Cup hosting campaign.
