FIFA Uncovered: How Top FIFA Officials Allegedly Colluded With Qatar to Award World Cup Hosting Rights

• FIFA Uncovered, a new docu-series by Netflix, has shed light on a scandal believed to have rocked the football body by choosing South Africa, Qatar and Russia as World Cup hosts
• While the docu-series does not go into detail on how Russia might have gotten rights ahead of England in 2018, Qatar's case has been broken down with accounts from a whistleblower
• The Gulf state has refuted multiple claims of wrongdoing and moral infringements, even as it prepares to host the very first World Cup in the Middle East

Netflix has officially released its explosive docu-series that reportedly lifts the lid on widespread and systemic corruption in the world governing body for football, FIFA.

Titled FIFA Uncovered, the four-part docu-series sought opinions of whistleblowers, experts and former and current officials of FIFA.

It touches on a variety of subjects, the key among them being how Qatar and Russia were awarded the hosting rights of the World Cup in 2022 and 2018. Allegations of corruption had rocked the bidding process.

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Prior to the naming of the two countries as the winners of the bidding process in 2010, England had been widely seen as the frontrunner for the 2018 showpiece, while the United States of America was the favourite to land the 2022 tournament.

Qatar's human rights record

Immediately after then FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced Qatar's win, questions were raised on why FIFA decided to take the world's largest sporting event to a country that had a poor record concerning human rights.

The human rights issue has remained a divisive subject in the build-up to the event, which is now less than two weeks away.

Human rights organisations and the World Cup organising committee continue to give contrasting numbers, of the people who have lost their lives while building the infrastructure for the event.

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ExCo members were paid handsomely

However, according to a former official turned whistleblower Phaedra Almajid, the Qatar 2022 bid Secretary General Hassan Al-Thawadi talked to and gave money and other benefits to FIFA's Executive Committee (ExCo) members, in an attempt to sway their vote.

The committee, which was since renamed the FIFA Council, was responsible for determining which country hosted the World Cup.

Almajid explains in the docu-series that during a CAF General Assembly in 2010 in Luanda, ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, Hassan approached Issa Hayatou, then President of CAF from Cameroon, Jacques Anouma from Ivory Coast and Amos Adamu of Nigeria - all of who were members of the powerful committee.

Almajid reveals that Hassan offered the three executives $1 million USD, disguised as a token to improve football in their countries. The amount was then upped to $1.5 million USD.

Qatar continues to deny claims

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Hassan has refuted these claims, saying they are 'inherently false' and insisting that 'all facts are on the ground.'

Another member of the Executive Committee from Thailand was roped into the scandal, after both Thailand and Qatar struck deals for cheaper gas.

The same allegations were levelled when then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with the son of the Emir of Qatar. Sarkozy then invited Michel Platini, the President of UEFA along.

Platini was an influential figure in football and was at one point poised to succeed Blatter as President. He has maintained that he was blindsided, but admitted he knew why Sarkozy could have wanted him to vote for Qatar.

Was PSG's take-over a factor?

After the vote came the high-profile takeover of Paris Saint-Germain by the Qataris.

The new owners have continued to pump large sums of cash into the club to date. BeIN Sports, Qatari's broadcaster, was also given rights to the French League plus other alleged lucrative business deals between the two governments.

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All the parties involved have continued to deny any wrongdoing, but the coincidences are too big to ignore.

The controversies surrounding the two World Cups, plus the corruption scandal in the Concacaf region orchestrated by the powerful James Warner and Chuck Blazer, ultimately led to the fall of Blatter, who resigned.

However, he has never been charged with any misconduct.