DOHA, Qatar, June 3 (UPI) -- Qatar could lose the 2022 World Cup after the Sunday Times published documents that suggest Qatar was bribing FIFA officials to get their vote for the bid.
The Sunday Times has received millions of documents that suggest around $3.4 million in bribes were paid to FIFA members under the direction of Mohamed Bin Hammam, a senior soccer official in Qatar at the time of the bid.
The documents show that Bin Hammam made payments through ten secret slush funds to accounts controlled by the heads of 30 African soccer associations who influence the bid vote of Africa's four executive members.
Michel Platini, the president of Europe's soccer federation, was also reported to have secretly met with Bin Hammam. Qatar also offered a gas deal to Thailand for their support in their World Cup bid, according to a story in the Telegraph.
Bin Hammam was banned from world soccer in 2011 for bribing voters to elect him as FIFA president.
In March, the Telegraph revealed in another report that Jack Warner, the former vice president of FIFA, received about $2 million from a Qatari firm with ties to the World Cup bid.
Australia has said it will resubmit its bid and the U.S. is likely to do so as well, if Qatar loses its bid.
A Qatari spokesperson said that Bin Hammam had nothing to do with the World Cup bid.
