This doesn’t look good.
FIFA has hardly been enjoying a golden boy reputation of late and more scandal is surrounding Sepp Blatter, it seems.
Journalists from German broadcasters, WDR and ARD, have claimed that they were arrested and detained in Qatar while filming a documentary on the corruption of football’s global governing body.
The decision to grant the middle eastern country the World Cup in 2022 was met with controversy aplenty and these recent reports will do nothing to help ease those criticisms.
Whilst working on a documentary, The Selling of Football – Sepp Blatter and the Power of FIFA, media members were said to have been taken into custody in Doha and Florian Bauer, a reporter with ARD, went public this afternoon.
Now it's public. We got arrested in #Qatar, interrogated by the police&the intelligence service.Not allowed to leave the country for days.
— Florian Bauer (@FloBauerAuthor) May 4, 2015
Arrested in #Qatar . Police,public prosecutor & intelligence involved. http://t.co/o7DkXRnZZu @FIFAcom @FIFAWorldCup 2022 @Qatar2022_WFC
— Florian Bauer (@FloBauerAuthor) May 4, 2015
#Qatar2022 ahead of new criticism. Arrested in #Qatar, all material erased, equipment demolished. What is #fifa saying to this?
— Florian Bauer (@FloBauerAuthor) May 4, 2015
WDR report findings from their investigation which include a member of the FIFA Executive Committee admitting to a business deal with leading companies in Qatar and Russia around the time of the decision to award the 2022 World Cup host nation.
The documentary, which airs in Germany tonight, was also said to be hindered when journalists were arrested in Qatar.
‘During the filming of the documentary, a camera crew from West German Broadcasting was arrested in Qatar,’ WDR write. ‘The station had reported in recent years in many of the preparations of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the living conditions of workers in the country.
‘In vain, the team had, for weeks, been trying to get permission to shoot and asked senior government officials to interview about the announced labor law reforms and the living conditions of migrant workers.
‘The WDR team was arrested during a shooting with workers in the Qatari capital Doha, then interrogated by the State Security. The camera equipment, laptops and personal mobile phones were confiscated and returned with a four-week delay. All data has been deleted and equipment pieces have been damaged.’
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