Interpol's controversial funding by Qatar and the IOC

By Mathieu Martinière et Robert Schmidt (We Report)

The international police body Interpol severed all links with football's governing organisation FIFA after the latter's corruption scandal erupted in 2015. But it has maintained partnerships with both the committee organising the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who are at the centre of corruption investigations. This is despite the fact that leading police officers from across Europe tried to alert Interpol over these potentially dangerous links. Mathieu Martinière and Robert Schmidt from the independent journalistic collective We Report investigate.

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On June 3rd, 2015, and at the request of the FBI, the international police organisation Interpol issued its well-known red or 'wanted' notices in relation to key figures in football's world governing body FIFA. These figures included Jack Warner from Trinidad and Uruguay's Nicolas Leoz, both accused of racketeering, conspiracy and corruption. A few days earlier FIFA's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, had been searched in a dawn raid and seven FIFA executives had been arrested in their luxury hotel. It was the start of the the so-called 'FIFAgate' affair that made front pages all around the world.

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