Former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber has hit out at critics of the decision to award his country the 2022 World Cup and denied allegations that corruption was involved.
Sheikh al-Thani, who served as PM until 2013, claimed those questioning Qatar's hosting of the tournament were motivated by racism and Islamophobia.
Speaking to Fox News, he said the allegations of corruption had come from countries that had failed to win "a fair competition."
"See how they don't talk about Russia with Qatar," he said. "We support of course Russia, to have their turn [as hosts] in 2018.
"But we see the talk... is all about Qatar, because it comes to a small, Arab, Islamic country. That's how people feel.
"We dealt with this in a fair competition. There was no corruption."
Sheikh al-Thani was the first member of Qatar's ruling family to speak about the World Cup since seven FIFA officials were arrested on corruption charges late last month.
Fourteen former and current officials have been indicted, with more indictments predicted to follow.
Swiss officials announced that they would be looking at the process that led to the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Speaking after the arrests, Football Association chairman Greg Dyke said he suspected Qatar could be stripped of the right to host the World Cup, which it was awarded in 2010.
A UK parliamentary select committee published evidence, received from The Sunday Times newspaper, which suggested Qatar had offered up to $500,000 to African members of the FIFA executive committee in exchange for their votes.
The country has also faced international pressure over the deaths of migrant workers building infrastructure projects for the World Cup.
The International Trade Union Confederation said almost 2,000 people had died and warned that number could double by 2022.
But FIFA corporate communication manager Alexander Koch told German TV talkshow Jauch on Sunday: "It's my strong conviction that the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar is good for the workers there."
The Qatari authorities claim that conditions for the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in the country have been improved, but Amnesty International has accused them of "promising little and delivering less" in terms of effective reform.
