Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Issa Hayatou, has denied selling his vote for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Cameroonian spoke to a French publication, Jeune Afrique, saying the claims that he took a bribe from Qatar “is absolute nonsense”.
According to media reports, Hayatou, who also serves as vice president at FIFA and CAF were accused of accepting bribes by a former Qatar bid employee, Phaedra Almajid.
Documents in possession by the FBI reveal that investigators interviewed Almajid, who said she was present when the Qatar bid organization paid $1.5 million to three African members of FIFA’s executive committee in an aim to secure their votes for Qatar, which was awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 tournament.
“I have never seen this woman in my life, she claims that we met Qatar people in a hotel in Angola. When? Where? She said so first, then she admitted she had lied,” said Hayatou.
“A year later, she repeats her accusations. It’s complete nonsense. We have asked her to show evidence. She has not.”
The CAF boss added that he was unaware of any wrong-doing in the bidding processes for the 1998 and 2010 tournaments, which both involved Morocco.
“Rigged by whom? All I can say is that us, Africans, we drew lots in order not to give the impression that we were favouring one of the candidates,” added the 68-year-old.
“There were four of us (on the FIFA executive committee). We decided to give two votes to South Africa, two votes to Morocco.
“And we drew. Ismail Bhamjee and Amos Adamu got South Africa, Amadou Diakite and I got Morocco. This is our policy.”
Nevertheless, Hayatou says he has a ‘clear conscience’ also denying having any knowledge of any attempts by Morocco to buy votes for the 1998 and 2010 tournaments.
“How come I would have known? No one has come to me to tell me.”
