The Qatar organizers of the 2022 Soccer World Cup are tied to terrorist groups

In addition to the corrupt relationship between former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and the Qatar FIFA committee, there were other controversies surrounding Qatar handling of the preparations for the event. For example, there have been many reports of how Qatari companies, who habitually mistreat migrant laborers, now mistreat those migrant workers who work on building the infrastructure for the 2022 event. In fact, more than 100 migrant workers have already died as a result of unsafe working conditions, leading for calls from many quarters for finding another venue for the games.

Then there is the question of the temperature in Qatar in the summer. Several state football associations, and many medical specialists, said that the summer heat in Qatar is such that it would be dangerous for players to play for ninety minutes, and risky for spectators to sit in the stands during games. There has been growing pressure on FIFA to move the games to January, but this would disrupt domestic leagues. The issue has not yet been resolved.

Now there are new revelations about the Qatari officials behind the 2022 World Cup. A news report in the Daily Mail links the Qatar World Cup committee to supporters of terrorism. According to the report, Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi, the lead organizer of the 2022 football competition in Qatar and former president of the Qatari Football Association (QFA), has links to al-Qaeda and Hamas.

The U.S. Treasury Department has designated al-Naimi as a prominent financier of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Somalia. In 2013, al-Naimi ordered the transfer of nearly $600,000 to al-Qaeda via the organization’s representatives in Syria, then, for a period of time, al-Naimi reportedly oversaw the transfer of more than $2 million per month to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Naimi’s replacement at the QFA, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, has also been accused of aiding terrorist organizations, possibly faciliatetd by his April 2013 meeting with Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh to discuss Qatar-Hamas relations.

The United States, along with Canada and the European Union, have designated Hamas a terrorist organization, but in October 2012, the Emir of Qatar made an official visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza and pledged $400 million in support to Hamas. Later, in the April 2013, Sheik Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al Thani, Minister of State for Internal Affairs and chairman of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Security Committee, met with Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad, pledging to offer training and equipment to “strengthen the Hamas security apparatus.”

Hamas’s Interior Ministry is responsible for the organization’s terror squads which have attacked Israeli targets in the region and Egyptian targets in the Sinai Peninsula.

This latest information about the ties between the Qatari World Cup organizers and al Qaeda, and al Qaeda’s affiliates, is only going to increase the pressure on FIFA to consider moving the 2022 World Cup from Qatar. The unbearable summer heat, the appalling working conditions and mistreatment of migrant workers, Qatar’s contribution to the corruption of FIFA – and now the revelations about the organizers’ connections to terrorist groups. It will take some doing for FIFA to stick with its decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.