Qatar won the World Cup and Qatar will stage World Cup vows angry bin Hammam

By Andrew Warshaw

January 29 – The row over the Qatar 2022 World Cup looks set to escalate after Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Mohamed bin Hammam (pictured) rejected UEFA President Michel Platini’s suggestion that the tournament should be spread across the entire region.

Bin Hammam, who is widely predicted to be close to a decision whether to take on Sepp Blatter on June 1 for the leadership of FIFA, insists the World Cup should remain in the tiny Gulf state and not be shared with any neighbours.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the Asian Cup final, Bin Hammam, himself a Qatari, re-iterated that Qatar had won the right to stage the 2022 tournament and that it should not consider co-hosting.

“Qatar submitted a bid to organise the World Cup and it is fair for Qatar to organise all the matches,” Bin Hammam said.

“It has never been discussed that the matches should be played in other countries as well.

“I do not think that any country will be part of the competition in that respect.”

Bin Hammam said that the surrounding regions would still benefit from Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 tournament.

“The impact of the World Cup is very huge. Of course the biggest impact will be in Qatar, but the region will also benefit,” he said.

“The region will benefit from tourists coming, it will benefit economically, a lot of infrastructure will need to be built.

“Football will be promoted in a huge way and I think the legacy that football will be leaving in this reason will be huge.”

Ironically Platini, who has also backed calls to move the tournement to the winter, was to join Bin Hammam later today at the Asian Cup final between Japan and Australia.

Bin Hammam is getting increasingly frustrated at what he calls “outsiders” casting aspertions on Qatar’s right to host the World Cup when and how it likes.

Yesterday, he again reacted angrily to continued suggestions that the dates should be switched.

“I’ve said consistently that Qatar won the bid to stage 2022 in June-July, and we intend to do so in June-July,” he was quoted as saying.

“We are confident we can stage the most comfortable World Cup ever and we will keep our promise.

“We are not interested in changing by even one day from the conventional period. Anyone who has a different opinion – that’s their problem.

“The World Cup has been organised since its launch in 1935 in the summer, and there must be good reason why.

“We should preserve this and look at the damage from departing from convention.”

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