The Ugly Game
The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup
Simon & Schuster Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 23. April 2015
Book
Hardback
480 pages
978-1-4711-4934-4 (ISBN)
Description
When FIFA awarded the tiny desert state of Qatar the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, the news was greeted with disbelief and allegations of corruption. How had a country with almost no football infrastructure or tradition, a high terror risk and searing summer temperatures of 50C beaten more established countries with stronger bids? The story behind the Qatari success soon developed into one of the greatest sporting scandals of our time.
And when the Sunday TimesInsight team received a cache of hundreds of millions of documents from a whistleblower, the contents of the FIFA Files became a global sensation, unearthing the corruption that lay at the heart of the bidding process.
Now in this remarkable new book by the Sunday Timesjournalists at the centre of the investigation, Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, comes the most comprehensive account yet of what happened and who was involved. Above all, it explains why, despite all the evidence, FIFA under Sepp Blatter continues to support Qatar - even to the extent of publishing an edited and abbreviated report into the process that was immediately denounced by its original author. Longlisted for the William Hill prize, The Ugly Gameis undoubtedly the biggest sporting story of the year.
And when the Sunday TimesInsight team received a cache of hundreds of millions of documents from a whistleblower, the contents of the FIFA Files became a global sensation, unearthing the corruption that lay at the heart of the bidding process.
Now in this remarkable new book by the Sunday Timesjournalists at the centre of the investigation, Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, comes the most comprehensive account yet of what happened and who was involved. Above all, it explains why, despite all the evidence, FIFA under Sepp Blatter continues to support Qatar - even to the extent of publishing an edited and abbreviated report into the process that was immediately denounced by its original author. Longlisted for the William Hill prize, The Ugly Gameis undoubtedly the biggest sporting story of the year.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
8pp colour photos
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-4711-4934-4 (9781471149344)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Heidi Blake is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist. She was assistant editor of the Sunday Times, attached to the Insight team, until spring 2015 when she became BuzzFeed's UK investigations editor. Jonathan Calvert has worked for various newspapers in a long and distinguished career as an investigative journalist. He is the longest-serving editor of the Insight team at the Sunday Times, having held the role for more than ten years.