Qatar state airline tried to buy FA's silence on World Cup bid, ex-chairman Greg Dyke says
Qatar’s state airline explored buying the FA’s silence over any criticism of its controversial hosting of the World Cup, according to former chairman Greg Dyke.
Mr Dyke claims when he was looking for sponsorship for the FA Cup in 2015, Qatar Airways showed interest in investing, but only on the condition that he stopped criticising the Gulf nation’s successful World Cup bid.
Mr Dyke, who was an outspoken critic of the shock vote that unexpectedly handed Qatar the tournament, says the proposed deal was financially significant but came with strings attached.
“We were looking for a new sponsor for the FA Cup and suddenly Qatar Airlines offered to be the sponsor with a very generous offer. But the condition was I 'shut up’ about Qatar.
"To be fair to the executive of the FA, I told them this story and they all said ‘tell them where to get off’,” he said.
Others who worked for the FA at the time and who were close to those preliminary discussions agree with Dyke that any negotiations with Qatar Airways were discounted; but none recalls the conditions that went with them.
'Suddenly Qatar Airlines offered to be the sponsor,' Mr Dyke tells ITV News
Multiple sources have told ITV News that Qatari investment was ruled out simply because of the suspicion of corruption that surrounded the Gulf nation becoming World Cup hosts. It was impossible, they say, to sign a huge sponsorship deal with a major Qatari company, when the FA was one of the biggest critics of the murky FIFA process.
One former FA executive told ITV News: “There was never ever a firm offer on the table, but we dismissed any possibility of that. That decision though was simply about the vote and what we thought about how Qatar won the World Cup, it had nothing to do with any of the issues that have emerged since then, like migrant workers’ welfare.”
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When approached about their former chairman’s claims the FA declined to comment, except to say “the current leadership of the FA was not in position in 2014 and was not aware of these allegations”.
Qatar Airways have a completely different recollection of events, insisting it was the FA that first reached out to them. In a statement to ITV News they said: “Qatar Airways had a request from the FA in late 2013 to explore the possibility of sponsoring the FA Cup but this was never seriously pursued by the airline due to its other sponsorship commitments, we thanked the FA for considering Qatar Airways and wished them well for the future.”