Platini arrested over awarding World Cup 2022 to Qatar
The former French captain and UEFA President has been taken into custody as part of the investigation about alleged corruption of Qatar winning the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Former UEFA President Mitchel Platini has been arrested over allegations of corruption over awarding Qatar the chance to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
According to Mediapart, the 63 year old has been detained by the French Police on Tuesday from Nanterre, a suburb in Western France, over allegations of corruption in electing Qatar as the host nation for the 2022 World Cup. He has been taken to the Anti-Corruption Office of the Judicial Police (OCLCIFF) for further questioning.
The arrest of Platini means the first notable public move in the investigation regarding the decision of selecting Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup. This investigation was opened a couple of years ago by France’s Parquet National Financier, an organization responsible for overseeing serious financial crimes.
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The former UEFA President voted for Qatar in the 2010 bid. Then FIFA President Sepp Blatter admitted that the vote of UEFA was key to the selection of Qatar as the host nation.
Platini served as UEFA President from 2007 to 2015, and was tipped to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA President. But both of them were banned from football for four years in 2015 with both their bans expiring in March of this year.
Platini was on the 1998 World Cup organising committee and later joined the FIFA executive committee in 2002, serving until his ban in 2015.
The selection of Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup was controversial since it was announced in 2010 following allegations of corruption and bribery. In 2014, Platini confessed that he had a meeting with Mohamed bin Hammam before casting his vote for the right to host the 2022 World Cup. Mohamed bin Hammam is an ex-Asian Football Confederation who has been banned from football for life after an expose by Sunday Times.
Platini and Sepp Blatter were both banned following charges of a series of regulation breaches. The regulation breaches included conflict of interest and dereliction of duty when Platini received 2 million Swiss Francs from Blatter. Both of them were cleared of corruption charges in 2015, but were banned for four years for the regulation breaches.
