Arab journalist Amjad Taha dropped a bombshell this Thursday through their social networks. He denounced a bribe in the opening duel of the 2022 World Cup between the host Qatar and Ecuador.
The man who works as the regional director of the British Center for Middle East Studies and Research claimed that eight players from Ecuador were bribed with a large amount of money to let them lose 1-0 in the first match in Group A.
“Exclusive: Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian players with $7.4 million to lose the first game (1-0. 2nd half). Five Qatari and Ecuadorian experts confirmed this“, wrote.
“We hope it is false. We hope that sharing this will affect the outcome. The world should oppose FIFA corruptionadded the Bahrain native.
Three days following the start of the maximum football event, FIFA has been silent regarding it. Even the Qatari soccer federations and that of Ecuador they have not manifested before this accusation.
Exclusive: Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian players $7.4 million to lose the opener(1-0 ⚽️ 2nd half). Five Qatari and #Ecadour insiders confirmed this.We hope it’s false. We hope sharing this will affect the outcome.The world should oppose FIFA corruption.@MailSport #WorldCup2022
– Amjad Taha Amjad Taha (@amjadt25) November 17, 2022
They disqualify the source who spoke of alleged bribery
Marc Owen Jones, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University, disproved what Amjad Taha said.
Through social networks, Jones exhibited Taha with “some previous examples of Amjad’s disinformation, including saying the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated an Emirati activist in London, a faked coup in Qatar, and some weird, bot-manipulated news regarding Afghanistan’s airport”.
Even the professor, who is also dedicated to analyzing disinformation campaigns, points out that Taha tries to discredit the image of the country organizing the World Cup.
“It is worth noting that the goal of such rumors they shouldn’t even be taken seriously. Even the rumors of match fixing are enough to muddy the waters and cast doubt on the goal (in this case Qatar),” he noted.
Just a heads up if anyone sees a story regarding Qatar bribing Ecuador 7.4 million to lose the opening game – it started here from a well-known disinformation account who is somehow also the main source in the story @amjadt25 . It’s already got thousands of RTs though pic.twitter.com/2EjjvqEbBV
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) November 17, 2022
