When FIFA, soccer's governing world body awarded the privilege of hosting the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the tiny Arab Gulf state jutting off the Arabian peninsula, you could nearly hear the collective gasp of shock from the world soccer establishment.
After all, how is a tiny oil state with no stadiums going to transform itself into a World Cup-ready venue?
Qatar has no football tradition and is one of the hottest places on Earth; hardly suitable for the world's biggest sporting event.
It's also a conservative society which persecutes gay people, and if you're female and plan on attending, you'd better buy yourself a burka.
Also, forget about enjoying a beer during the game; it's illegal to drink alcohol outside of a select number of luxury hotels.
So what does the Gulf nation's royal family have in store to get their tiny, repressive monarchy into World Cup-hosting shape? Oh right - we know now - slave labor.
How exactly did Qatar convince FIFA it would do a better job at hosting the tournament than the USA and a number of other countries? Well, they had 1.6 million reasons, well, US$1.6 million, that is, according to an international investigation into corruption in the bidding process.
That's the figure then-FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and one of his employees are believed to have been paid by a Qatari company involved with the country's official bid. And there are documents to prove it, according the Telegraph, the British paper which first published the latest details.
Both the FBI and FIFA's ethics committee are involved in their own investigations and there will be more to this story in the coming weeks. Warner has so far declined to comment.
