19th November, 2012
Samson Adamu, son of suspended Fifa executive committee member, Amos Adamu has been alleged to have received a $1 million offer from 2022 World Cup hosts, Qatar.
According to The Sunday Times of London in its 18 November edition with a front page headline ‘World Cup probe over mystery $1m offer,’ Samson received the sum “to fund a dinner and workshop on the eve of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.”
Although, Adamu’s son denied the accusation, but the paper reported that: “Fifa’s top investigator has been called in to examine evidence that the winners of the right to host the 2022 World Cup secretly offered $1m (£630,000) to the son of one of the voters.
“Documents passed to Fifa by The Sunday Times show that the Qatar bid team offered the cash to Samson Adamu, 26, the son of Amos Adamu, the Fifa executive committee (exco) member,” The Sunday Times stated in its report.
It is reported that the Qatar bid deputy chief executive, Ali al-Thawadi brokered the deal months before the bidding contest to host the 2022 World Cup.
The Qatar bid deputy chief executive was said to have denied knowledge of the $1 million offer to Adamu’s son but lawyers of the Qatar 2022 accepted there were discussions on the issue after they were shown evidence by The Sunday Times.
The Qatar 2022 lawyers also claimed they “backed out of the deal after considering the relevant Fifa rules.”
Fifa has already passed the evidence of The Sunday Times to its chief ethics investigator, Michael Garcia, for scrutiny.
“After receiving these documents, Fifa has immediately forwarded them to Michael J Garcia, independent ethics committee chairman of the investigatory branch. It will be for Michael Garcia to analyse the documents and decide on any potential next steps,” a Fifa spokesman was quoted as saying.
Samson, 26, was said to have used the $1 million to host “300 eminent guests” to a dinner to celebrate Africa’s football legends.
The British newspaper in its report revealed that the gala dinner actually gulped about $220,000, according to invoices it has as evidence.
The report also stated how Samson and al-Thawadi exchanged emails on payment plans to host the football dinner.
Both men were believed to have first met in Luanda, Angola at the Caf congress in January 2010, which The Sunday Times reported was sponsored by Qatar.
Thawadi was said to have emailed Samson five days after their first meeting in Luanda to open up discussions on the proposed deal.
“The agreement is between Kinetic Sports Association, a Swiss company which Samson planned to set up, and a ‘private institution’ in Qatar which is bidding to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup . . . and wishes to acquire certain exclusive rights in connection with the events in order to promote its bid to host the competition,” reported The Sunday Times.