Argentine Julio Grondona, the senior vice president on the FIFA executive committee, told Fox Sports Argentina he voted for Spain/Portugal to host the 2018World Cup and — surprise — the United States, not Qatar, to host the 2022 World Cup.

It’s been assumed Grondona voted for Qatar as part of a pact Qatar struck with supporters of the2018 Spain/Portugal bid on the executive committee. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a former employee of the Qatar 2022 bid committee said a payment of $78.4 million to help the Argentine soccer federation out its financialproblems was discussed by a Qatar bid adviser.

Grondona denounced the report, but two lawyers (backed by anti-Grondona forces in Argentine soccer) have since gone to court to examine Grondona’s many business accounts and determine whether he got a 10percent cut of the alleged payment. The executive committee votes were by secret ballot, so there is no way to confirm who voted for whom. There has been widespread speculation about who were theeight (out of 22) members who voted for the USA.

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