The Taliban made millions from the World Cup by providing construction equipment to build stadiums in Qatar, The Telegraph understands.
Senior Taliban officials used lucrative salaries tied to peace talks to buy and then subcontract heavy machinery for tournament infrastructure over the past decade, a source from the Taliban's Doha office revealed.
A large contingent of the Taliban leadership lived in Doha, the capital of Qatar, from 2013 onward where they were engaged in long-running peace talks with the US and UN.
“The Taliban invested heavily in the World Cup construction and the tournament was a golden duck. They were paid millions,” claimed the source, who lived in Doha in the decade running up to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
“Some Taliban members had between six and ten pieces of heavy machinery each in Doha and would earn up to £10,000 per machine per month.”
