Award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar: Reynald Temarii "serene" after his indictment

Former Tahitian vice-president of FIFA Reynald Temarii, indicted earlier this week for passive corruption in the investigation in Paris on the award of the World Cup-2022 to Qatar, refuted Sunday these accusations and said he was "serene", on the Polynesian channel TNTV.

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It is a non-event, the truth does not change, there has never been corruption, "said Saturday (Sunday Paris time) Reynald Temarii on the set of the local channel, saying he was "surprised" by his indictment, but ensuring to be "extremely serene".

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With my lawyers, we are waiting for the documents we have requested to understand" the reasons for this indictment which could, according to him, be related to the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal to change the investigating judges in charge of his case.

This indictment, the first in this case, was served on Mr. Temarii by the investigating judges in charge of the case in a letter dated 22 May. Since November 2021, he has been placed under the more favourable status of assisted witness.

In this part of the judicial investigation opened in 2019 in Paris on the designation of the emirate as host country, the investigating judges are interested in the about-face of Mr. Temarii, former president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), the day before the award of the World Cup to Qatar.

Suspended for one year by FIFA in November 2010 for violating the code of ethics, Reynald Temarii could no longer sit on the executive committee on 2 December 2010 for the vote.

The OFC therefore had to appoint a replacement who would have given his vote to Australia in the first round of voting and, if unsuccessful, to the United States, Qatar's main rivals.

However, Mr Temarii appealed against his suspension on the night of 30 November to 1 December even though he had previously announced that he accepted the sanction and did not have the reasons of the ethics committee allowing him to do so. By appealing, according to FIFA's statutes, he deprived the OFC of a representative during the vote. On December 2, 2010, Qatar won over the United States, who were favourites.

Last October, Reynald Temarii told AFP he had himself been "a victim of fraud" in the case and denied "any corruption pact".

A former strongman of Tahitian football, Mr. Temarii is still active in the Polynesian sports world, especially in the popular canoe races.

However, he has no official activity in football since FIFA suspended him for eight years for violating the code of ethics in 2015. The suspension ended on May 15.