Former FIFA Vice-President Reynald Temarii indicted on bribery charges

The former vice president of Fifa, the Tahitian Reynald Temarii, has been indicted since May 22 for passive private corruption in the Paris investigation into the attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, as declared on Saturday May 27 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), confirming the information of the World. This is the first indictment in this part of the judicial inquiry opened in 2019 in Paris into the designation of the emirate as a host country.

The investigating judges are interested in the about-face of Reynald Temarii, also former president of the Oceanian Football Confederation (OFC). On 1 December 2010, the day before the World Cup was assigned to Qatar, the former footballer changed his mind about an internal procedure for violating the code of ethics, appealing to general amazement. This had the consequence of depriving the OFC of a representative, and therefore of a vote, in the ballot that finally saw Qatar conquer the cup ahead of the United States. Since November 2021, Reynald Temarii has been placed in the more favorable status of assisted witness in this case.

Troubled ties to an influential Qatari

The PNF is also interested in the relationship Reynald Temarii had with a member of the Qatari elite, Mohammed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation from 2002 to 2011. Once suspected of buying votes for Qatar, finally banned for life by FIFA in 2012 for embezzlement, Mohammed Bin Hammam had paid the defense costs of Reynald Temarii, in the amount of 305,000 euros. With the vote on the allocation of the 2022 World Cup approaching, Tahitian had also been invited all expenses paid to Malaysia to meet Mohammed Bin Hammam there.