Swiss weekly Weltwoche "published damning detail of an Australian-led campaign to attack Qatar, destabilise FIFA and fund a disinformation campaign" against FIFA election candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The paper "has access to a series of emails outlining correspondence between various parties that show a funded campaign that as its ultimate objective appears to have the dissolution of FIFA as an organisation."
At the center of the campaign is Int'l Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow, "who initially set her sights on human rights issues and Qatar and has campaigned against the state hosting the 2022 World Cup." As this campaign lost its global news value, the ITUC "shifted its focus" to campaigning against FIFA and FIFA President Sepp Blatter, and then on to Sheikh Salman. Weltwoche outlined correspondence within the group as its focus shifts from Qatar to FIFA to Sheikh Salman "as he emerged as a leading contender for the FIFA presidency." When Blatter announced his resignation, EMC Dir Gemma Swart was naturally excited by "Blatter's exit visa" but was already looking ahead. In an email to ITUC Communications Dir Tim Noonan, Swart wrote, "Qatar and Russia should now be invalidated. We can have a new assignment. And six months of open path for a campaign toward the Congress."
It "is soon after this that the group talks about financing a smear campaign" against Sheikh Salman. On Sept. 9, Swart wrote to Noonan and others, "Prince Ali just announced that he may run again (for the presidency). We do benefit if he wins and Sheikh Salman loses. We can divert some money for a disinformation campaign against Salman." The implication "seems to be that Prince Ali has provided cash to fund the campaign." How far the parties were prepared to go with their destabilization campaign "becomes clearer in an email from Deborah Unger, who writes to the ITUC, Fuller, Mersiades and the British MP Damian Collins and other allies on December 20." She wrote, "We have investigated through our Swiss colleagues of Transparency the likelihood that Swiss government could dissolve the FIFA." However, they "found that there was no strong will within the Swiss Parliament to do this" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 2/11).
