Qatar uses Al-Jazeera as bargaining chip: WikiLeaks

FIFA said on Wednesday that it had awarded Middle East and North Africa broadcasting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Al Jazeera, extending its existing deal with the Qatari channel.The rights deal covering television, internet and mobile transmissions in 23 countries or territories was the first to be signed for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, world football's governing body said in a statement.The value of the deal was not revealed.FIFA awarded Russia and Qatar respectively the right to host the event less than two months ago.

Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam said Wednesday he would vote for Qatar to host the World Cup in 2022.FIFA's 24 executives will choose who hosts the 2018 and 2022 World Cup events on December 2 in Zurich.Underlining his desire to see the tournament return to Asia for a second time, the AFC head said his vote would go to the other three Asian nations bidding to host the 2022 event if Qatar was not in the running.

Al-Jazeera has advertised more than 100 job vacancies in New York and Washington, including a team of investigative journalists, in preparation for launching its US news channel.

Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup fairly and squarely and not by corrupt methods the Qatar Football Association on behalf of the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee for the FIFA World Cup ('the Bid Committee') announced on Monday.The QFA issued a statement on behalf of the Bid Committee in which they answered in great detail the allegations of corruption by the bid team made in a memorandum put together by two reporters at The Sunday Times newspaper.

Interactive graphic on recent host nations of football's World Cup as the sport's governing body FIFA announces Russia as the winners of the vote to hold the most prestigious global sporting event in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.

Qatar and its Gulf neighbours are set to benefit immensely with the expected spending bonanza from Doha hosting the football World Cup in 2022, an economic report said on Sunday.Tiny gas-rich Qatar had already announced plans to spend at least 100 billion dollars even before being selected to host the world's biggest sporting event, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said in a report."Hosting the World Cup foremost adds a sense of urgency and an ultimate hard deadline for the completion of the projects critical to a successful hosting," the report said.

Australian football officials remain confident in their bid for the 2022 World Cup despite reports that China wants to host the 2026 tournament.There is little likelihood of Asian countries hosting two World Cups in succession, which means any formal bid from China would put enormous pressure on 2022 bids by Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.Football Federation Australia said it was confident China's interest in hosting the 2026 tournament would not impact on its chances.