NEW YORK—A powerful soccer official from Argentina demanded bribes to vote for Qatar to host the World Cup in 2022, at one point telling Qatari officials to turn over $80 million, a witness at a U.S. trial testified. Former Argentine marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco told the jury on Tuesday that the official, Julio Grondona, claimed in several conversations that he was owed millions of dollars for his 2010 vote as a member of FIFA’s executive committee that helped Qatar land the soccer’s most prestigious tournament. The account in federal court in Brooklyn appeared to back up persistent suspicions that the Qatar vote was rigged and that the influence of Grondona, a senior vice-president at FIFA and head of the Argentinian football association until his death in 2014, was for sale. Read more:‘I’ve nothing to hide,’ says PSG president in FIFA bribery case

Source: thestar November 15, 2017 16:52 UTC