French justice continues to strike in the sports movement. She hits hard. According to information from Monde and AFP, two new actors were indicted last March for “active corruption”.
The first is a regular at the exercise. Lamine Diack, the former president of the IAAF, is not his first indictment. He could even soon be sent to court, for having monetized his silence and that of his institution on several cases of doping in Russian athletics.
The second is a newcomer. Yousef Al-Obaidly (photo above), the general director of BeIn Sport, has never before been cited in any case, past or current. Like Lamine Diack, the Qatari is suspected of having participated in the negotiation of bribes when the city of Doha was awarded the World Athletics Championships in 2019.
Yousef Al-Obaidly was indicted for “active corruption” on March 28. Lamine Diack, for his part, was the day before, but for “passive bribery.”
French magistrates are questioning two payments totaling $3,5 million, made in the fall of 2011 by the company Oryx Qatar Sports Investment. It is owned equally by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the president of Paris-Saint-Germain, and his brother Khalid. The payments were made to a sports marketing company headed by Papa Massata Diack, the sulphurous son of the former IAAF president.
The investigating judges are seeking to determine whether, in return for these payments, Lamine Diack influenced the vote of IAAF members in favor of Qatar. Doha was then a candidate for the organization of the 2017 World Athletics Championships. The IAAF preferred London. But the capital of Qatar did not lose everything, since it won the hosting of the world meeting in 2019.
The first transfer was made on October 13, 2011 and the second on November 7, 2011, four days before the IAAF vote.
According to a source close to the matter, the two payments were provided for in a memorandum of understanding between Oryx Qatar Sports Investment and Papa Massata Diack's company. It stipulated that the Qatar-based company agreed to purchase sponsorship and broadcast rights for an amount of $32,6 million, on the sole condition that Doha obtains the organization of the 2017 World Cups.
So far, nothing very unusual. But, more doubtfully, it was specified in the contract that the two payments made before the IAAF decision were “non-refundable”. Very suspicious.
