Witness testimony: Top FIFA official was bribed $1 million to vote for Qatar

As the corruption probe at Fifa unfolded in New York, a key witness has testified on Tuesday that a top Fifa official was bribed $1 million to vote for Qatar, reported Guardian.

The alleged official was Julio Grondona, a senior vice-president at Fifa and head of the Argentinian football association until he passed way in 2014, the witness Alejandro Burzaco, an Argentinian sports marketing executive, said in court.

Burzaco quoted Grondona as allegedly telling him that he was still owed money for the vote on behalf of Qatar, which secured Doha the world’s most prestigious tournament.

Strongest evidence

The testimony in the New York court is “one of the strongest evidence the 2022 vote was tainted,” the report said.

The whole affair was public, said the marketing executive who had accompanied Grondona and other officials to Zurich for the vote in 2010 and had heard of their intention to back Qatar.

Burzaco also claimed that he witnessed quarrel between Grondona and Qatari officials at a Fifa event later during which the Argentinian football executive was furious at reports implicating him in corruption and “insinuated he had been underpaid for his vote”.

The trial into corruption at Fifa is continuing in New York.