Qatargate and the responsibilities of Sarkozy and France. Weapons, planes, PSG and much more in exchange for a yes to the World Cup? – Corriere.it

Honor to France if they win the World Cup again. Honor to Argentina if they bring the Cup to Buenos Aires. And honor to Mbapp and Messi, champions and opponents, but companions of Paris Saint-Germain, the Qatar-owned team. In short, as they say, however it goes, it will be a success. Clear on a sporting level, a little less so on a political and financial level.

On the Qatar World Cup, in addition to the notes complaints about the conditions of immigrant workers employed in the construction of stadiums and infrastructures, judicial inquiries into the circumstances in which the Emirate obtained the candidacy have been lengthening for some time. The difference with the history of bribes in the European Parliament could result from the method, the way of understanding lobbying, power relations, the strategic interests of a country.
Many clues lead to Paris, even in the golden halls of the Elysium. In France, Qatar has laid the foundations for extensive penetration into the world of finance, business, real estate and hotel sectors, military contracts and sport. And won the candidacy of the World Cup, thanks to relations with former president Nicolas Sarkozy
, with some characters close to the Elysée and the former star of the French football firmament, Michel Platini. Le Monde recalls that the foundation stone for the candidacy was metaphorically laid by Sarkozy in a speech in Doha in 2010, delivered on the occasion of the Sport Forum, organized by businessman Richard Attias, companion of the president’s ex-wife, Cecilia.

Nine years later, it was opened an investigation into corruption and money laundering under the uneditable title of state lobby. Everything would arise from an episode following the conference, a lunch at the Elysée in which Sarkozy, Platini, the crown prince of Qatar, Al Thani, his prime minister and Claude Gant, general secretary of the Elysium, later indicted, sit around the table for corruption in the context of other judicial investigations. According to Le Monde, there is evidence that Sarkozy was involved in promoting Qatar’s victory. Six months after that lunch, Qatar buys Paris Saint-Germain, enters the capital of the Lagardre group and supports the launch of the sports television channel BeinSports. Qatar also buys 80 Airbus A350s, Rafale aircraft, Tiger helicopters, an Aster 30 long-range missile defense system. Michel Platini, head of UEFA, an old friend of Sarkozy, was always in favor of the United States’ candidacy. But then he changed his mind. Platini assures Le Monde that he made the decision to vote for Qatar well before lunch at the Elysée.

But Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa from 1998 to 2015, recalled the importance of lunch at the Elysée. Platini told me that Sarkozy had recommended that he vote for Qatarhe declared in November 2021. The contents of the famous lunch at the Elysée closed in the state archives and protected by secrecy at least until 2038. The Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (Cada) also issued a negative opinion at the beginning of January 2021, citing as justification the protection of the fundamental interests of the State in its foreign policy or in the simple conduct of its foreign relations.

On December 2, 2010, the FIFA Executive Committee voted, to everyone’s amazement, in favor of the Emirate as host country for the 2022 World Cup. The American delegation, led by former President Bill Clinton, was furious. I voted for Qatar – Platini later said – in the name of developing football in a region that had never had a World Cup. As Le Monde reports, Sbastien Bazin, CEO of the Accor hotel group and then European representative of Colony Capital, wanted to get rid of the PSG, a heavily indebted club whose reputation was tarnished by brawls between ultras. And he wanted to sell it to Qatar. To do so, he counted on the goodwill of his old friend Nicolas Sarkozy. Was the PSG takeover a condition for France’s support for Qatar’s bid? As revealed by Mediapart, Sbastien Bazin, who was heard in the spring of 2022 by the investigating judges as a free defendant, assured in a text message that the thing was feasible. On 10 December 2010, a note from Olivier Buquen, head of the interministerial delegation for economic intelligence, illustrated the numerous advantages that would derive from assigning the tournament to the emirate. Everything still had to be done in Qatar: stadiums, hotels, transport, etc. In addition to the $55 billion of infrastructure projects already underway, $45 billion was to be allocated in the form of PPPs (public-private partnerships), the note reads, which proposes to raise awareness of potentially interested French companies in these markets and put in place support mechanisms for strategic contracts. French military and diplomatic interests – writes Le Monde – seem to have weighed in favor of Qatar’s candidacy.

Bazin stated a Le Monde that the negotiations for PSG were without any consideration or condition other than the financial one. Laurent Platini, son of the champion was hired after a series of interviews in December 2011 as a consultant for Pilatus Sport Mgmt, a holding company owned by the Qatari fund QSI, which manages the Burrda Sport equipment brand. Michel Platini told Le Monde: My son makes his decisions about his professional life. He doesn’t need me, he never asked me for anything. There was no direct or indirect…lateral, vertical, or spatial counterpart to my vote. The FBI, the Swiss and French courts have investigated and are still investigating: they have found nothing. They can search, do their job, they won’t find anything, because I haven’t been corrupted. The Emirate will make more gestures of affection towards Nicolas Sarkozy’s entourage. As revealed by Mediapart, Qatar will accept a request from Claude Gant in 2011, who wants the Emirate to offer a contract to Znz Group, the company of the communicator François de La Brosse, who worked for Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007, then as adviser to the Elysium. Thus, 600,000 euros would have been paid by Qatar to Mr de La Brosse as of September 2011, out of the more than 2 million euros expected. De La Brosse said this first payment corresponded to the web design and IT development of the platform I love Qatar, which was meant to promote the merits of tourism in the emirate, plus the cost of sending a crew to shoot and edit “thirty four-minute clips”. This chapter of the story was added to another judicial investigation, the one on suspicions of Libyan financing of Sarkozy’s electoral campaign, in 2007.

The emirate has had affections for other members of Sarkozy’s inner circle. In March 2012, a private law foundation, the International Center for Sports Safety (ICSS) subsidized, for 150,000 euros per year, a chair dedicated to ethics and safety in sport at the University of Paris-I-Panthon -Sorbonne, where Sophie Dion teaches, head of the master’s degree, sports adviser to former president Sarkozy and present at the famous luncheon at the Elysée. Ms Dion, former deputy chairman of the France-Qatar friendship group in the National Assembly, during her tenure as deputy for Haute-Savoie (2012-2017), said she only received €13,000 within the framework of this partnership between Paris-I and the ICSS. After his 2012 defeat, Nicolas Sarkozy virtually retired from politics and took a few holidays in Qatar before embarking on a career as a speaker, as revealed by Le Canard Enchan in October 2012.

According to Libration in 2014, based on documents from the investigation, Sarkozy intended to raise funding to feed an investment fund. In 2012, Qatar rescued another friend of Sarkozy, Arnaud Lagardre, who was in trouble running his company. Qatar Holding has acquired 12.8% stake in Lagardre. After the failed attempt to return to politics in 2016, Sarkozy joined the board of directors of the Accor group in 2017, as chairman of the international strategy committee. Sarkozy, who will also join the board of directors of the Lagardre group in 2020, arrives at the right time in the hotel group: Accor, which has been PSG’s shirt sponsor since 2019, will also benefit from other juicy spin-offs from the World Cup, including a partnership to manage the reception of fans in a network of 66,000 rooms. Interviewed by the Journal de Dimanche, Sarkozy condemned the boycott of the competition by some French municipalities which decided not to organize public maxi screens and criticized in particular his successor, the socialist François Hollande and the mayor of Paris, Anna Hidalgo. Football is a universal sport and every region of the world should be able to organize an international competition. Football doesn’t just belong to Westerners. a sport that brings people together. All the countries that have organized major international events have been the subject of much controversy: China, Russia, Brazil and now Qatar. We should give each of these host countries a chance to demonstrate their know-how and wait to see how these events play out before judging them. I didn’t sell the Rafales. My successor must have judged that it was a correct decision. As for the boycott, it seems to me that the Paris City Council is very happy that the Qataris are the owners and financiers of the club in the capital. This rather hypocritical controversy.