Searching for the smoking gun in Qatar’s ’22 World Cup controversy

The way Qatar has so far handled the persistent suspicion over the 2022 World Cup does not do any good for the country when it is wrestling against allegations of bribery Qatar’s handling of persistent suspicion that it illicitly employed its financial muscle to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup has earned it a conviction in the court of public opinion even if revelations of alleged bribery have yet to produce a smoking gun.

Qatar’s refusal to provide transparency and accountability about its World Cup bid, including details of its budget and the way that budget was spent as well as its relationship to disgraced former FIFA Vice President and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Mohammed Bin Hammam, a Qatari national, has only served to cement a public conviction that the Gulf state has much to hide.

Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the body responsible for organizing the World Cup, issued this week a bland response to a report in Britain’s Sunday Times asserting that it had obtained documents proving that Bin Hammam bribed African football officials who are mostly not members of FIFA’s executive committee who vote on the awarding of World Cup hosting rights.

The brief statement denied any wrongdoing or relationship with Bin Hammam who in 2012 was banned by FIFA for life from involvement in professional football on charges of conflict of interest in his management of the AFC’s financial and commercial affairs.

Like earlier generic denials of wrongdoing, the statement failed to convince the public of Qatari innocence even though much of the suspicion stems from repeated controversy about the Gulf state’s bid and deep-seated distrust...