FIFA president Sepp Blatter has drawn criticism for his apparently jokey remark in a South Africa media session that gay fans attending the 2022 Word Cup soccer matches in Qatar “should refrain from any sexual activities” while in the Arab emirate. Awkward laughter by the assembly of news media followed.
Qatar is scorching in summer, it limits alcohol consumption, homosexuality is illegal and women are subjected to discrimination under a range of laws and practices.
Allegations of bribes have put the selection of Qatar is under a thick, dark cloud.
The Manchester Guardian had this to say:
As the debate about whether to shelve voting on 2 December raged on, Fifa's ethics committee embarked on an urgent investigation into the allegations about Nigeria's Amos Adamu, the president of the West African football union, and Tahiti's Reynald Temarii, the president of the Oceania Football Confederation.
Both men are members of Fifa's 24 man executive committee and reporters arranged meetings with them by posing as lobbyists for a consortium of private North American companies who wanted to take the World Cup to the United States.
...During meetings in London and Cairo, Adamu allegedly told journalists that he wanted £500,000 to build four artificial football pitches in Nigeria. He was caught on camera asking for funding to support a "personal project" but subsequently claimed he had been discussing post-World Cup business proposals in his home country and that his vote was not for sale.
Temarii is also alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case £1.5m to finance a sports academy, during a meeting in Auckland, New Zealand. The Oceania Football Federation has duly opened an emergency inquiry. In total undercover reporters spoke to six senior Fifa officials, past and present, who all suggested paying huge bribes to executive committee members.
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