The French justice investigation into the controversial attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar is progressing. According to information from World, the investigating judges questioned as a witness, in Paris, Tuesday, January 11, the former secretary general of the International Football Federation (FIFA), the Frenchman Jérôme Valcke, 61 years old. The latter was heard within the framework of the judicial investigation opened, in 2019, by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “active and passive corruption”, as well as for “concealment and money laundering” around obtaining, in 2010 , the organization of the tournament by the gas emirate.
In November 2021, the former FIFA president, the Swiss Sepp Blatter, 85, was heard over two days, for six hours, in Zurich, by the investigating magistrates and police officers from the Central Office for the Fight against corruption and financial and fiscal offenses (OCLCIFF).
“Qatar had to thank France”
During the hearing of Mr. Blatter, one of the subjects raised was a lunch at the Elysee Palace organized on November 23, 2010 by Nicolas Sarkozy. The French magistrates seek to verify whether a corruptive pact was concluded during this meeting to which the President of the Republic had invited Michel Platini, president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the current Emir of Qatar , Tamim Ben Hamad Al Thani, as well as his Prime Minister.
Heard in police custody in June 2019 in the premises of the OCLCIFF, in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), Mr. Platini is suspected by the investigators of having voted in favor of Qatar at the request of Mr. Sarkozy, during the award ballot organized by FIFA on December 2, 2010.
“ Without Sarkozy’s last-minute intervention on Platini, Qatar would never have had the World Cup, recently reaffirmed Mr. Blatter at World. Especially since, if the sale of Paris-Saint-Germain [PSG] in Qatar was held after the vote is that it is 100% linked. Qatar had to thank France a little. “
Several months after this lunch, in 2011, PSG was bought by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI). The club was until then the property of the Colony Capital fund, whose representative in Europe was Sébastien Bazin, a friend of Mr. Sarkozy.
“Nicolas Sarkozy did not intervene on my vote, replied in our columns Mr. Platini. I received no pressure, either direct or indirect, from the Elysee. “ Mr. Platini, whose son, a former PSG lawyer, worked from 2011 to 2016 for a QSI subsidiary, says he was unaware of the arrival of Qatari leaders by going to the lunch on November 23, 2010.
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