Caf President Issa Hayatou

Nigeria, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire have received a written apology from a whistleblower who alleged Caf executive members took bribes to favour the Qatar World Cup bid.

Arab-American Phaedra Almajid has been outed as the whistleblower and admitted to former World Soccer editor Keira Radnedge that she did something very wrong.

“I did something very wrong and I have to do everything I can to put the record straight. I have to clear my conscience and cannot live with these lies anymore and I am very sorry to everyone I hurt, especially all my colleagues at the Qatar Bid.”

Almajid was employed by the Qatar bid between May 2009 and March 2010 and held the position of International Media Specialist, working closely with chief executive Hassan Al-Thawadi.

Almajid confessed that she fabricated the reports because she was upset at being sacked.

Part of the fabrication included claiming the bid offered bribes to Fifa executive committee members Issa Hayatou, Jacques Anouma and Amos Adamu and that it had been considering financial support for the Argentinian federation led by Julio Grondona, Fifa’s senior vice-president.

Following her confession, she has now sent a statement of apology accompanied by a sworn affidavit of the true facts to Fifa, the Asian confederation, CAF, the Qatar FA, and the Qatar World Cup 2022 Bid Committee as well as to Nigeria’s NFF, Cameroon’s FECAFOOT and Cote d’Ivoire’s FIF.

Adamu and Reynaldo Temarii had earlier been suspended by Fifa on a separate vote-buying charges intigated by a sting carried out by the Sunday Times.

Almajid told Radnedge she had decided to make her retraction “because it is the right thing to do” and insisted she had not come under any outside pressure nor had she been offered any financial inducement.

Source: Kickoff.com