The World Cup has been rocked by a new scandal before the start of the tournament. Amjad Taha, a journalist and researcher from the British Middle East Center for Studies and Research alleges that Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian players to lose the opening game 1-0. That way the host country would start the tournament well and not make a muddy figure.
Taha, who is from Bahrain, says he knows that eight Ecuadorians were bribed by Qatar to lose the opening game 1-0. In total, more than seven million euros would be involved in the agreement. A goal after the break should ensure the final score. The journalist states that he has heard from five independent sources, from Ecuador and Qatar, that the story is correct.
Exclusive: Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian players $7.4 million to lose the opener(1-0 ?? 2nd half). Five Qatari and #Ecadour insiders confirmed this. We hope it’s false. We hope sharing this will affect the outcome.The world should oppose FIFA corruption.@MailSport #WorldCup2022
— Amjad Taha???? ?? (@amjadt25) November 17, 2022
“Of course we hope this is not true,” Taha also says in the message on Twitter, in which he made his revelation. “We hope that this revelation will affect the outcome of the match and that the bribery will not go ahead. The world must speak out and stand up against the corruption in FIFA.” Qatar and Ecuador face each other at Al Bayt Stadium on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. The the Dutch starts the World Cup a day later.
It is not the first time that Qatar has been linked to bribery around the World Cup. The Times previously reported that there were “millions of secret documents” in circulation that would confirm that Mohamed bin Hammam, who was a FIFA official around the appointment of the 2010 World Cup, was involved in buying votes to move the World Cup to Qatar to come. Recently, then FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted that the allocation for Qatar was a mistake, although the Swiss was referring in particular to the limited size of the country.
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