monday, June 9, 2014
still all FireD up »p13
Arcade Fire ahead of their Dublin gig at Marlay Park
Fifa feels the heat over bribe claims QATAR’S bid to host the 2022 World Cup was thrown into fresh doubt after a series of Fifa’s biggest sponsors broke their silence on corruption allegations. Fifa partners Sony, Adidas and Visa weighed into the row as new claims emerged about the former Qatari Fifa vice-president Mohammed bin Hammam. He is already accused of paying millions of euro in bribes, and faces claims he secured a multi-milliondollar gas export deal in exchange for Thailand’s support of the bid. Mr Bin Hammam was banned for life by Fifa in 2012 over conflictof-interest allegations, and Qatar claims he had no role in the bid. But that has not reassured the companies that hold the Fifa purse strings. Sony, which has a sponsorship deal worth more than €220million, said: ‘We expect these allegations to be investigated appropriately. We expect Fifa to adhere to its principles of integrity, ethics and fair play across all aspects of its operations.’ Adidas, which has sponsored Fifa since 1970, said: ‘The negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa
by Dominic Yeatman
at the moment is neither good for football nor Fifa and its partners.’ Fifa’s investigation, by former US attorney Michael Garcia, is due to finish in the next few days. But it was not clear whether the new allegations would be examined. Visa, which is due to sponsor the 2022 tournament, said: ‘We will continue to monitor Fifa’s internal investigation. Our expectation is that all of our partners maintain strong ethical standards and operate with transparency.’ And Castrol, which is a sponsor for the 2014 tournament, said: ‘We expect Fifa to deal with this in the right and proper manner.’ Former English FA chief executive Mark Palios warned yesterday that investigators would find it hard to prove the allegations. ‘The trouble is that they don’t have the power of investigation that the police or the Inland Revenue have,’ he said. Qatar said: ‘We are confident that, at the end of the appropriate process, the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar will stand.’
man dies after stolen taxi smash A man travelling in a stolen taxi died after it crashed in Dublin yesterday. The victim, aged in his 20s, was a passenger in the car when it hit a pole in James’s Street/Mount Brown at about 8.45am. He was taken to St James’s Hospital and pronounced dead. The driver is being held at Kilmainham Garda Station. The taxi had been stolen a mile-and-a-half away at 8.30am. A Garda spokesman said the car was not being pursued at the time of the crash. PICTURE: Pa
‘We expect Fifa to deal with this’
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