A senior MP has called for a “proper independent investigation” into claims Qatar launched a secret campaign to discredit its rivals to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Damian Collins, the chair of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, said on Sunday that Fifa should address allegations that the Gulf state hired a PR agency and former CIA operatives to disseminate fake propaganda about its main competitors, the USA and Australia, more seriously than it handled earlier corruption allegations.

The claims came from an anonymous whistleblower, who alleged to the Sunday Times that a smear campaign had been orchestrated on behalf of Qatar’s bid committee, which included paying a professor $9,000 (£6,900) to write a damning report on the economic cost of a US World Cup, recruiting journalists and bloggers to promote negative stories in the US, Australian and international media, and organising grassroots protests at rugby matches in Australia, to give Fifa the impression of a lack of support for bids in their home countries.

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The leaked documents purport to show that a group of American PE teachers had been recruited to ask congressmen to oppose a US World Cup on the grounds the money would be better spent on high school sports.

Fifa’s rules of conduct for the bidding process state that bidders should not make “any written or oral statements of any kind, whether adverse or otherwise, about the bids or candidatures of any other member association.”.

Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup in the winter to avoid games being played in summer temperatures, which means domestic football schedules in Europe and elsewhere will be interrupted.

Fifa has already investigated corruption allegations involving the Qatar bid, but did not find any evidence that it had bought votes so the tournament is set to go ahead as planned. It will be the first time the event has been hosted in the Middle East, even though Qatar has no history of playing top-class football.



The Sunday Times published an email, purportedly from Michael Holtzman, the president of the communications and PR company BLJ in New York, who was working for Qatar 2022, to Ahmad Nimeh, an adviser on Qatar’s bid team. Dated 17 May 2010 and under the subject line “strategy”, it says: “For the past 4 months, we have undertaken an extensive campaign to undermine the 2018/2022 candidacies of competitor countries, particularly Australia and the US.”

According to the newspaper, Holtzman said this included: “recruiting journalists, bloggers and high-profile figures in each market to raise questions and promote negative aspects of their respective bids in the media. Dozens of articles have appeared in US, Australian and international media that have embarrassed or undermined these bids and put bid leadership on [the] defensive ... Developing reports, studies and legislation that provide embarrassing details or undermine central aspects of each bid ... We have delivered several deeply revealing intelligence reports on individual targets that have been used internally by the bid”.

Holtzman said: “We have a group of pro-rugby students in Melbourne, Australia, who will start appearing at rugby matches with signs ‘Hands off our rugby! No to World Cup!’ in June.”

Collins told Sky News on Sunday: “I’ve met the whistleblower myself and seen the evidence that he’s brought forward. I think these are serious matters and there needs to be a proper independent investigation of them.”

He said there had been a significant loss of confidence in Fifa as a result of corruption allegations and that the latest claims represented an “opportunity to demonstrate that Fifa takes these issues much more seriously than it has done”.

Lord Triesman, England’s bid chairman in 2010 when the country campaigned to host the 2018 finals and a former chairman of the Football Association, urged Fifa to look at the evidence thoroughly, and said Qatar should not be allowed to host the World Cup if the country is shown to have broken Fifa rules.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lord Triesman. Photograph: Sang Tan/PA

Fifa said: “Concerning the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process, a thorough investigation was conducted by Michael Garcia and his conclusions are available in the report. Generally speaking, complaints regarding potential breaches of the Fifa code of ethics may be filed via Fifa’s confidential reporting mechanism.”

Qatar’s organising committee said it rejected the allegations. “We have been thoroughly investigated and have been forthcoming with all information related to our bid, including the official investigation led by US attorney Michael Garcia,” it said in a statement. “We have strictly adhered to all Fifa’s rules and regulations for the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process.”

BLJ has been approached for comment.