Journalist Amjad Taha (who has 435,000 Twitter followers and works for the Daily Mail) reported that Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian footballers to miss the first game of the World Cup. Taha reports that the organizers spent $7.4 million for the 1-0 win and a goal in the second half for this purpose, and claims that the above news is confirmed by people from both Qatar and Ecuador. Several Ecuadorian media outlets have already reproduced this news and now it is awaited to be confirmed or not.

The European media, sports and non-sports, have been inundated in recent days with reports, comments and complaints about “paying fans” or “fake fans”, the possibility that the organizing committee of the World Cup in Qatar made sure to fill the stands, as well as the streets and airports of the emirate by foreigners coming mainly from India, Bangladesh, etc., who will support large European or other national teams during the event due to the lack of real travel fans.

The image of enthusiastic Indian immigrants singing the English anthem and welcoming the team with unparalleled warmth surprised many, with suspicion directed at the huge funds spent on the event by the organizing committee. This story became known in October, when it was revealed that the organizing committee was paying for the flights and accommodation of fans from England and Wales, as well as offering them tickets for matches. All the organizers ask in return, European newspapers write, there are positive reviews about Qatar.

The image of Indian immigrants jumping around in T-shirts from Brazil, Argentina, England, further heightened the suspicion. However, the organizing committee dismisses the complaints in disgust, linking them to the war Qatar is receiving from Western media.

So on Wednesday and yesterday, the Emirati media were full of statements from the organizers that “these suspicions are absolutely false. All sports enthusiasts who visit Qatar as our guests do so voluntarily and without any payment.”