One of the areas Has
san al Thawadi refused to discuss during my Newsnight interview with him was the amount of money Qatar spent on its successful World Cup bid.
Despite repeatedly asking him to reveal the bid’s budget the former chief executive, now overseeing preparations for the tournament 11 years from now, wouldn’t budge.
He argued – perhaps with some justification – that if he opened up Qatar’s accounts for public scrutiny then he would be inviting another wave of international opprobrium at the country’s vast spending power. He didn’t say this but he probably also felt that inferences would once again be drawn about Qatar’s methods of winning influence during the controversial two-year campaign.
But al Thawadi does admit that his country’s bid budget was way more than the $43m (£27m at current exchange rates) previously reported. My guess is that it is closer to $100m (£63m). He spent $27m (£17m) alone on a mini prototype stadium with the air-cooling technology Qatar plans to roll out during the World Cup, while about the same again was spent on the bid’s marketing and press budget.