As DFB president and Fifa board member, Theo Zwanziger was one of the harshest critics of the World Cup in Qatar. Now there is a suspicion that the emirate commissioned the company of a former CIA agent to turn the official around – for ten million dollars.
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Johannes Aumüller and Thomas Kistner
Just under nine months until the sports world celebrates the next very special spectacle: the soccer World Cup in Qatar. The tournament is overshadowed by allegations of corruption as well as the human rights situation. But since the controversial award by the world association Fifa in 2010, a discreet facade cleaning has been going on in Doha: With all its strength and recognizable financial expenditure, the emirate is trying to present itself as a clean, modern, sustainable host. Lobbyists are working on this purification narrative on many levels – but now a whole new dimension is revealed here.