Al-Khelaifi was charged with corruption in May 2019 in a case centring on two bank payments made on October 13 and November 7 2011 for a total of $3.5 million (£2.9 million/€3.3 million) by Oryx Qatar Sports Investment (QSI), a company ran by his brother Khalid Al-Khelaifi, to Senegalese-based sports marketing firm Pamodzi Sports Consulting headed by Papa Massata Diack, the son of late former International Athletics Federation (IAAF) President Lamine Diack.

Investigating judges had justified French courts' jurisdiction because of an alleged meeting in French territory at the Hotel Negresco in Nice and the transfer of $2 million (£1.7 million/€1.9 million) paid into an account in France.

In return, it was claimed that Qatar would have received the support of Lamine Diack, IAAF President from 1999 to 2015 and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from 1999 to 2013, for hosting the 2017 World Athletics Championships and 2020 Olympic Games.

Al-Khelaifi had always denied wrongdoing.

The Court of Cassation deemed that the French judicial system was incompetent to prosecute him, and also lifted proceedings against beIN Media Group chief executive Yousef Al-Obaidly.

Al-Khelaifi's lawyer Francis Szpiner welcomed the Court's ruling.

"I am pleased with this decision which is in accordance with the law and I recall that Nasser Al-Khelaifi has always contested having committed any offence in this case," Szpiner told Agence France-Presse.

Doha lost to London in its bid for the 2017 World Athletics Championships, but staved off competition from Eugene and Barcelona to secure the event in 2019.

The Qatari capital was not selected as a candidate city for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games by the IOC, the event ultimately awarded to Tokyo.

A World Athletics spokesperson said the governing body had no further details on the reasoning for proceedings being dropped.

"We are a 'partie civile' to this case; therefore, we do not currently have details on why the case was dropped," the spokesperson told insidethegames.

insidethegames has also asked the Qatar Athletics Federation for a comment.

Al-Khelaifi is the President of French football club Paris Saint-Germain, owned by QSI..

He is chair of the European Club Association, a position which grants him membership of the UEFA Executive Committee.

Al-Khelaifi is also chair of Qatari state-owned beIN Media Group, President of the Qatar Tennis Federation and Qatar Squash Federation and vice-president of the Asian Tennis Federation for West Asia.

Last year, he was acquitted by a Swiss appeals court in a case revolving around media rights for the FIFA World Cup.

Qatar 2022 Organising Committee member Al-Khelaifi had been accused of granting exclusive use of a luxury villa in Sardinia to former FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke.

Valcke was convicted of forging documents and accepting bribes, although said he would appeal.

The IAAF rebranded to World Athletics in 2019 under Diack's successor as President Sebastian Coe.

In September 2020, Diack was sentenced to four years in jail, two suspended, after being convicted by a French court of leading a clique that covered up Russian doping in return for millions of dollars in bribes.

Diack died in December 2021.

Papa Massata Diack failed to return to France to stand trial.

In his absence, French officials asked for a five-year prison sentence and a €1 million (£889,000/$1.1 million) fine.