PSG president accused of alleged corruption in bid for World Athletics Championships

If there is a sports field more openly corrupt than football, it is the international athletics competition. Another proof of this well-known fact comes from France, where the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, was accused of "active corruption" for allegedly bribing a member of the International Association of athletics federation to organize the event of its brand, the world athletics championship, in Qatar.

According to an Associated Press report summarizing the charges, in November 2011, just days before the vote to determine which country would host the 2017 championships, a company called Oryx Qatar Sports Investment made two installments totaling 3.5 million dollars to Pamodzi Sports Marketing. Oryx belongs to Al-Khelaifi and his brother, Khalid. Pamodzi belongs to Papa Massata Diack, son of Lamine Diack, president of the IAAF from 1999 to 2015. The IAAF has finally awarded the 2017 games to London. Qatar then won the rights to host the 2019 edition, scheduled to begin this fall.

Although the Al-Khelaifi brothers currently own Oryx together, Nasser, through his lawyer, denied being involved in the company at the time of the payments: "Nasser Al-Khelaifi was neither a shareholder nor an administrator of Oryx in 2011. He did not intervene directly or indirectly in the Doha bid. The French authorities accused Lamine Diack of "passive bribery" last March, and an arrest warrant was also pending against her son. PSG board member and BeIn Sports CEO Yousef Al-Obaidly were also billed for the 2011 payments.

The latter case is the second of the corruption charges in sport that the PSG president is currently facing. The Swiss authorities are still investigating Al-Khelaifi, who accuses him of having used for free for nine years a luxury Italian villa, former FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke. World Cups.

PSG fans must be frustrated to learn how much better Al-Khelaifi is to buy international games and television rights than he is to buy the European Cup PSG they are looking for. desperately. Although no one can say he did not try.

[[[[AP]