England and Australia’s unsuccessful bids, though, were criticized by the organization’s ethics committee.
An independent committee cleared Qatar and Russia's bids for the 2022 and 2018 World Cups of corruption allegations following an investigation.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter during a news conference on March 21, 2014 in Zurich.
AFP / Getty Images AFP
But England and Australia's unsuccessful bids came under harsh criticism in the committee's report. The panel was established by soccer's international governing body, FIFA.
Qatar has attempted to fend off a number of accusations surrounding its bid since it was awarded the tournament four years ago.
It effectively ends talk of a revote on tournament locations, and FIFA welcomed the fact that "a degree of closure has been reached" on the matter.
The report said: "The various incidents which might have occurred are not suited to compromise the integrity of the FIFA World Cup 2018/2022 bidding process as a whole."
Qatari officials welcomed the findings. In a statement, they said: "We co-operated fully with the ethics committee's investigation and continue to believe that a fair and appropriate review will demonstrate the integrity and quality of our bid."
A 42-page summary document was published by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, who is the chair of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee. The document was a summary of the initial findings of an 18-month investigation led by Michael Garcia, a U.S. lawyer.
Eckert said that the full report would not be published as it would put FIFA in a "very difficult situation legally."
The small gulf nation was accused of paying FIFA officials around $4.5 million during the bidding process when it was shocking awarded a tournament ahead of the U.S., Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Arab men in Qatar sit at a shoemaker's stall with a replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy in 2011.
Getty Images Sean Gallup
The report, however, did say that there had been "certain indications of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals".
The reported also concluded that payments made by disgraced international soccer administrator Mohammed Bin Hammam — a Qatari — were in his personal political interests, and not related to Qatar's World Cup bid.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1xvVJo3
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