Qatar is once again facing allegations of bribery in a bid to host an international sporting event.
Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, accused Qatar officials of passing out "brown envelopes" just prior to the vote by the International Association of Athletics Federations regarding the organization's 2017 world championship, insinuating that bribes were being passed around, according to The Guardian .
"The night before the bid a very senior person in the IAAF hierarchy told me and my bid team that they understood certain members of the IAAF Council were being called upstairs one by one to a hotel suite to be given a brown envelope," Warner said.
"It seemed incredible to me at the time and so I dismissed it but subsequently we have heard that Papa Diack, Lamine Diack’s son, apparently was asking for $5m from Qatar to support their bid – they were our competitors for the 2017 championships."
The UK ended up securing the bid to host the international event after promising to shell out $7.2 million to cover the prize money. This last minute promise came after the U.K. team was informed that Qatar had already made a similar offer, according to Warner.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe said the claims would be investigated.
"The French prosecutors are looking at this. I have already implemented a review of our financial, our marketing and our sponsorship arrangements within the IAAF, so if anything comes out of that nature, then clearly all those bids will be called in," he said.
Qatar went on to successfully bid for the 2019 IAAF world championship. However, the emirate has faced similar accusations surrounding its controversy-ridden bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
However, despite the widespread allegations, no concrete evidence has ever been brought forward against Qatar and the emirate has thus far passed all international probes into the claims.