PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi charged with corruption after being accused of trying to buy 2017 World Athletics Championships
Investigation into former IAAF president Lamine Diack has included the Qatari businessman and accused him of making an alleged $3.5m payment over the 2017 bidding rights
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Your support makes all the difference.Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of Paris Saint-Germain, has been charged with corruption after being accused of attempting to buy the rights to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships for Doha, according to reports.
French judge Renaud van Ruymbeke has charged the Qatari businessman – who is also chairman of the Bein Media Group and also Qatar Sports Investments that owns PSG football club – over allegations that a $3.5m payment was paid to the disgraced former International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack in return of the 2017 World Championships.
Judge Van Ruymbeke had been investigating widespread Russian doping in athletics when he came across two payments of the same sum paid to Diack, who remains under house arrest in France and is being prosecuted for “passive corruption” that surrounds allegations of a host of illicit practices over a number of years, including bribe-taking and money-laundering.
An official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that Al-Khelaifi had been charged with “active corruption” in mid-May after attending a hearing with French prosecutors in March, along with a close associate understood to be Yousef al-Obaidly, the chief executive of the Bein Media Group who has publicly acknowledged the charges this week.
French newspaper Le Parisien adds Mr Al-Khelaifi has been formally accused of making one of the payments in return for the 2017 World Championship, which were eventually given to London by a 16-10 majority vote. Doha will host this year’s World Championships.
Mr Al-Khelaifi’s lawyer, Francis Szpiner, has previously rejected the allegations, claiming that they "are not based on anything”.
The Independent has contacted PSG for comment.
The two payments from Oryx Qatar Sports Investments, an investment fund linked to the Qatari government, were made to Pamodzi Sports Marketing in October and November 2011, days before the vote.
Al-Obaidly's representatives say the payments made by Oryx to the IAAF's appointed agent were transparent and part of the normal bidding process. Set up to handle the sponsorship and rights for Qatar's bid, Oryx accepted to pay $32.5 million for the event's commercial rights, including the $3.5 million paid to Pamodzi as a non-refundable deposit. The full amount would have been paid only if Qatar's bid had been successful.
Pamodzi was founded by one of Diack's sons, Papa Massata Diack. A former marketing consultant at the IAAF, he has been banned for allegations of extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Russian marathon runner to avoid a doping ban before the 2012 Olympics. France has issued a wanted notice for him via Interpol. He is currently in Senegal.
In another case, Brazilian and French authorities are trying to find out whether Lamine Diack and his son played a role in arranging alleged bribes to help Rio de Janeiro earn the hosting rights for the 2016 Olympics. Diack, who ran the IAAF from 1999-2015, has also been accused of covering up failed Russian doping tests in exchange for money.
Al-Khelaifi is a member of the Uefa executive committee, representing European clubs, and is due to take part in the body's meeting on Wednesday in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Al-Khelaifi was selected as a club delegate, and confirmed by Uefa member federations in February, despite being the subject of a criminal proceeding for bribery in Switzerland since 2017. The Qatari television executive is suspected of bribing Fifa's then-secretary general with use of a luxury villa in Italy to help secure 2026 and 2030 World Cup broadcasting rights in the Middle East for Doha-based Bein Sports.
Additional reporting by John Leicteser and Samuel Petrequin of AP
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