Home and Away: Qatari cash splash fails credibility test at security meet

Was it a trick of the light or did the portrait of a very young Queen Victoria astride a rearing horse issue a look of royal disapproval when football legend Franz Beckenbauer strode on to the stage of the Qatar-funded "Securing Sport" conference wearing what looked like blue denim?

Said canvas hung from one of the gilded walls of Lancaster House, a 19th-century pile of tawny Bath stone located in the fist of the British Establishment's property portfolio - slap-bang next to the royal residences of St James' and Buckingham Palace and a tiara's throw from parliament.

But no, thank goodness, "Der Kaiser" as the German football legend is known, was, on closer inspection, wearing trousers of a velvet-corduroy knit and you could hear the expensive threads rustle as those celebrated legs approached the podium.

Beckenbauer was speaking at this week's event run by the hitherto largely unknown International Centre for Sport Security, or ICSS, a self-proclaimed "not-for-profit organisation" based in Doha.

ICSS was established in 2010 to act as "a global hub of expertise in the field of safety, security and integrity for major sporting events", and was launched by its president Mohammed Hanzab, a former lieutenant colonel in the Qatar Armed Forces and ex-chief of the Qatar Information Agency (fellow Qatari Mohammed Hajaj al-Shahwani is ISCC vice-president).

"Sport Under Threat; The Games is Ours to Win" bellowed the garish corporate billboards which, along with blinding halogen stage lights, obscured the fine objet d'art decorating the spectacular double staircase and ornate, Louis XIV-inspired gold-trimmed rooms.

The conference planned to tackle issues like "the financial integrity of sport, match-fixing and illegal betting, transparency and child welfare to protect sport's credibility".

"Sport is under grave threat", warned Hanzab, "primarily from match-fixers". All the issues corrupting our beloved sports - crimes that set bad examples for children - would be explored, he declared.

Beckenbauer's star turn was quite a draw. He was opening the theme of morning two, "Case studies of societal impact of sports corruption".

The former Fifa exco member (he still sits on the general committee) was earlier this year given a 90-day suspension for not cooperating with Fifa's investigation into the claims of bribery and vote-rigging around the 2018 Russia and 2020 Qatar World Cups, the results of which may or may not be made public.

The World Cup winner might have been able to hoodwink many an opponent in his prime, but when quizzed during the media Q&A about corruption, vote rigging, bribery, Fifa, Sepp Blatter and football's creditability, et al, he's a one-trick pony.

Ultra-evasive, he fended off probes about who got his vote for Russia and Qatar, and why he did not cooperate with the Michael Garcia probe with excruciating long "ums", "ahs", shrugs and silences.

He departed looking somewhat dazed, confused and relieved, as were his tormentors.

"What's he doing here? This whole conference stinks," grumbled one veteran football writer.

Money, of course. Beckenbauer was being paid by the ICSS to appear at the lavish conference. Yet he clearly was not prepped for the ensuing onslaught, a naivety for which his hosts must take some blame.

But then who was prepared for the surreal, ostentatious backdrop to tackle corruption in sport?

We are told the Qataris splashed out £150,000 (HK$1.9 million) a day, or over £300,000 for the two-day event. That's not counting the speakers' fees, flights and accommodation [the Savoy Hotel], and those of the delegates of whom there were many.

There's no disputing the honourable intentions of ICSS, but splashing out on an overly extravagant public event to tackle corruption might seem at great odds with the needs of the sport-loving, slum dwellers of the world.

It certainly rankles fans who want only honest competition, and loathe the failure of the governing bodies to prevent the money men from ruining our sports.

If the ICSS wishes to be seen as more than just a muse for PR-hungry Qatar desperate to be viewed as credible World Cup hosts, it needs to splash its cash more wisely.