March 9 – Germany’s outgoing FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger is back on the offensive over the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
The former president of the German federation, who has long expressed his concern over the Gulf state hosting the tournament, leaves FIFA’s top table in May and will be succeeded by current DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach.
The latest target of the outspoken Zwanziger, the man charged by FIFA with monitoring the progress of workers rights in Qatar, is UEFA boss Michel Platini who has publicly declared that he voted for Qatar.
Re-opening the divisions within FIFA’s powerbrokers, Zwanziger feels that those attacking FIFA and calling for the removal of Sepp Blatter at the presidential election in May should also take note of the conduct of the UEFA president whose vote contributed both to Qatar’s landslide victory and therefore to the unprecedented recommendation for the first ever winter World Cup and disruption some believe it will cause.
In an internet show, Zwanziger commented: “This is hypocrisy that I do not like. If you want to criticise the [Qatar World Cup] decision then you also have to criticise the real culprits specifically and not always FIFA.”
Those calling for the removal of Blatter, he suggests, “should also ask for the resignation of Platini. Only then can it be genuine, reasonable and justifiable.”
Zwanziger, who has previously gone on record as saying awarding the World Cup to Qatar was “one of the biggest mistakes ever in the history of sport”, has little to lose now that he is shortly being replaced and spoke out again over the result of the December 2010, ballot.
“The decision will weigh down on football from top to bottom until the day on which it (the World Cup) is either cancelled or actually takes place,” he said.
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