Former Colombia Football Federation (FCF) President Luis Bedoya told a N.Y. courtroom on Monday that he was "approached over potential bribe payments to back Qatar’s bid" to host the 2022 World Cup, according to Oliver Laughland of the London GUARDIAN. Bedoya, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges filed as part of a "sprawling" U.S. government investigation into FIFA, said that he and two other senior South American football officials "discussed potential bribes during a conversation with an intermediary in Madrid" in '10. The Colombian told the court through a translator that he traveled to Madrid in May '10 to watch the final of the Champions League and was approached at a hotel by an unnamed "important person from Qatari television" and Argentine businessman Mariano Jinkis, the owner of sports marketing company Full Play. Jinkis, Bedoya told the court, wanted to introduce the Qatari official to Bedoya and his two colleagues, Juan Ángel Napout, the former Paraguay Football Federation president, and Luis Chiriboga, his counterpart in Ecuador, as the unnamed Qatari "wanted to know if South America was willing to support" Qatar in its bid for the World Cup. Bedoya characterized the introduction as short but added that after the Qatari official left the conversation, Jinkis "moved the discussion on to potential bribes." He told the officials "he could ask for 10 or 15m [in bribes] and could divide it up between the group of six" (GUARDIAN, 11/27). The AP reported Bedoya said that Jinkis added “each of us could make $1 million or $1.5 million.” While none of the six was on the FIFA exec committee for the '10 vote, Jinkis said that Qataris "wanted to influence" South America’s three voters: Julio Grondona of Argentina, Nicolás Leoz of Paraguay and Ricardo Teixeira of Brazil. Bedoya added that later that year, he presented CONMEBOL General Secretary Eduardo Deluca of Argentina with a letter stating that the FCF was supporting Spain in the vote for the 2018 World Cup host and the U.S. for '22. Bedoya said that Deluca told him, “You’re always with losers.” In a Dec. '10 vote, Russia was awarded the '18 tournament and Qatar won the bid for '22. Bedoya said that Jinkis later told him jokingly, "We could have made some money there" (AP, 11/28).
