Phaedra Almajid says she was present when Qataris offered cash to African officials
Phaedra Almajid says she was present when offers were made to a federation official
The Qatari team for the controversial winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup offered large sums of money to senior African football figures for their respective federations, claims former communications director Phaedra Almajid.
Almajid, who gave evidence under condition of anonymity to the Fifa inquiry into the corruption allegations surrounding the 2018 and 2022 bid races led by American former federal prosecutor Michael Garcia, only to be controversially outed by Fifa's ethics chief Hans-Joachim Eckert, told weekly football magazine France Football she was present when offers were made.
However, she did not witness money changing hands.
[The African football director] replied without looking at the Qatari: 'Ah, a million dollars ... why not a million-and-a-half dollars?'
She said one meeting took place in the suite of a hotel in the Angolan capital Luanda in January 2010 during the African Football Confederation (CAF) congress ahead of the continental football showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations.
She said somebody in the room said "how delighted they [the Qataris] were that a high-ranking African football director was present in the room and they wished to benefit his federation to the tune of a million dollars".
"This man [the African football director] replied without looking at the Qatari: 'Ah, a million dollars ... why not a million-and-a-half dollars?'," said Almajid, who lost her job in 2010.
"And the Qatari, he said he hoped he could count on his support. The fellow assured him that was the case. And that was that," said Almajid.