The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup
Apr 2015 · Simon and Schuster
4.4star
7 reviewsreport
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480
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About this ebook
THE STORY THAT BROUGHT DOWN FIFA'S SEPP BLATTER.
'With every page of this book, we see just why FIFA desperately needs a complete overhaul' - Sun
When FIFA awarded the tiny desert state of Qatar the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, the news was greeted with disbelief and allegations of corruption. How had a country with almost no football infrastructure or tradition, a high terror risk and searing summer temperatures of 50C beaten more established countries with stronger bids? The story behind the Qatari success soon developed into one of the greatest sporting scandals of our time.
And when the Sunday Times Insight team received a cache of hundreds of millions of documents from a whistleblower, the contents of the FIFA Files became a global sensation, unearthing the corruption that lay at the heart of the bidding process.
Now in this remarkable new book by the Sunday Times journalists at the centre of the investigation, Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, comes the most comprehensive account yet of what happened and who was involved. Above all, it explains why, despite all the evidence, FIFA continues to support Qatar - even to the extent of publishing an edited and abbreviated report into the process that was immediately denounced by its original author. Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, The Ugly Game is undoubtedly the biggest sporting story of our times.
'Never before has bribe-giving been documented in such graphic detail' - Independent
'With every page of this book, we see just why FIFA desperately needs a complete overhaul' - Sun
When FIFA awarded the tiny desert state of Qatar the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, the news was greeted with disbelief and allegations of corruption. How had a country with almost no football infrastructure or tradition, a high terror risk and searing summer temperatures of 50C beaten more established countries with stronger bids? The story behind the Qatari success soon developed into one of the greatest sporting scandals of our time.
And when the Sunday Times Insight team received a cache of hundreds of millions of documents from a whistleblower, the contents of the FIFA Files became a global sensation, unearthing the corruption that lay at the heart of the bidding process.
Now in this remarkable new book by the Sunday Times journalists at the centre of the investigation, Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, comes the most comprehensive account yet of what happened and who was involved. Above all, it explains why, despite all the evidence, FIFA continues to support Qatar - even to the extent of publishing an edited and abbreviated report into the process that was immediately denounced by its original author. Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, The Ugly Game is undoubtedly the biggest sporting story of our times.
'Never before has bribe-giving been documented in such graphic detail' - Independent
Ratings and reviews
4.4
7 reviews
Richard Slade
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May 10, 2015
All the football world's suspicions unfortunately are true😠😠😠
3 people found this review helpful
BEERESH K
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June 4, 2024
Supper
About the author
Heidi Blake is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist. She was assistant editor of The Sunday Times, attached to the Insight team, until spring 2015 when she became BuzzFeed’s UK investigations editor. She lives in south-east London.
Jonathan Calvert has worked for various newspapers in a long and distinguished career as an investigative journalist. He is the longest-serving editor of the Insight team at The Sunday Times, having held the role for more than ten years, He lives in west London.
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