Fifa is under growing pressure over its controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar..!

Fifa is under growing pressure over its controversial decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

One of its main sponsors, Sony, has called on the governing body to carry out an "appropriate investigation" into claims of wrongdoing during the bidding process.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times  has published new allegations based on a leak of millions of secret documents.
Qatar were awarded the right to stage the 2022 World Cup in December 2010.
The decision has come under increasing scrutiny with Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce saying he would support a re-vote to find a new host if corruption allegations can be proven.
Last week the newspaper alleged that Qatar's former Fifa Vice President Mohamed bin Hammam paid £3m to football officials around the world to help win support for Qatar in the run up to the World Cup vote in December 2010.
Now Bin Hammam is facing claims that he used his top level contacts in the Qatari royal family and government to arrange deals and favours to secure the tournament for his country.

Mohamed bin Hammam

Bin Hammam was initially banned from football for life in July 2011 after being found guilty of attempted bribery.
The allegations centred around bids to buy votes in the Fifa presidential election of that year.
However, his ban was annulled a year later by the Court of Arbitration for Sport which said there was insufficient evidence to support the punishment.
Bin Hammam then quit the sport saying he had seen the "very ugly face of football".
Fifa issued him with a second life ban in December 2012 for "conflicts of interest" while he was president of the Asian Football Confederation.
In March 2014, the Daily Telegraph reported a company owned by Bin Hammam had paid former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and his family more than £1m. Payments were claimed to have been made shortly after Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

According to the emails, some of which have been seen by the BBC, Bin Hammam:

*Visited Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin to discuss "bilateral relations" between Russia and Qatar a month before the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
*Brokered government level talks for Thailand's Fifa executive Worawi Makudi to push a deal on importing gas from Qatar to Thailand. Makudi told the paper he didn't receive a concession for his part in any gas deal.
*Invited Germany's former Fifa executive Franz Beckenbauer to Doha just five months after the vote with bosses from an oil and gas shipping firm which was employing him as a consultant. The firm involved says it was exploring possible Qatari investments in the shipping and maritime sector but that no deal ever came from the talks. When approached by the Sunday Times, former German international Beckenbauer declined to comment.
*Fixed meetings between nine Fifa executive committee members including Sepp Blatter with members of the Qatari royal family.
*Arranged a meeting between the Qatar bid team and Uefa boss Michel Platini at European football's headquarters in Nyon, near Geneva. Platini, who has openly admitted voting for Qatar, says Bin Hammam didn't attend the meeting and insists he has nothing to hide.
Qatar's World Cup organising committee last week issued a statement denying - once again - that Bin Hammam played any "official or unofficial" role in the bid. And Bin Hammam has declined to comment.
However, what the emails appear to demonstrate is that Bin Hammam - banned from football for life in 2012 for his part in another corruption scandal - was indeed working to secure support for the Qatar bid.
But while that might be uncomfortable for Qatar and Fifa, it is not clear that he or the bid broke any of the governing body's bidding rules. Fifa executive committee members were not subject to the same restrictions placed on bid officials and all the bidding nations used their heads of state and senior government figures to try and win influence and votes.
England's failed bid for the 2018 tournament used Prince William, the president of the FA, and Prime Minister David Cameron throughout the latter stages of their campaign.
It is also part and parcel of big sporting bids for countries to use them to try and broker big trade deals.
Fifa's chief investigator, the New York lawyer Michael Garcia, must now consider whether to include the latest revelations in his long-running inquiry into the World Cup bids. But he stated last week that he will wind up his investigation early next week before writing and filing his report with Fifa's new adjudicatory chamber in the middle of July.
It is understood that while Bin Hammam's role raises fresh questions about Qatar's campaign, Garcia is unlikely to look too deeply into his actions as he has already been banned by Fifa.
Britain's Fifa executive committee member Jim Boyce told the BBC that while the last week has been tough, world football's governing body is changing.
"Since I joined Fifa's executive committee in 2011 half of the committee has gone," he said.
"Mr Bin Hammam, who there's been a lot of talk about recently, has been banned for life by Fifa and many of these other people mentioned are no longer at Fifa as well.
"There are a lot of very good people at Fifa and people who are only interested in furthering the game of football. And obviously Fifa don't get enough credit for what they do around the world."