November 9 – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has added his once powerful voice to criticism of Qatar staging the World Cup by saying the decision 12 years ago was a mistake.
Blatter, now 86, ran world football’s governing body when Qatar was awarded the tournament in 2010.
It is common knowledge that he voted for the United States so Blatter’s position is perhaps not that much of a surprise.
While the Gulf state has been denounced for its stance on same-sex relationships, human rights record and treatment of migrant workers, it is important to note that Blatter was not referring to any of these in his widely reported comments.
Instead he cited the fact that the Gulf state half the size of Wales simply wasn’t big enough to handle FIFA’s showpiece event.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger, he said Qatar is “too small of a country” to host the tournament and that “football and the World Cup are too big for it. The choice of Qatar was a mistake.”
FIFA’s executive committee voted 14-8 for Qatar to host the tournament ahead of the United States at the same time Russia was awarded the 2018 event.
Blatter repeated the “mistake” comment on an upcoming BBC podcast series Power Play – The House of Sepp Blatter.
He blames then-UEFA president Michel Platini for swinging the vote in Qatar’s favour.
“It was a bad choice and I was responsible for that as president at the time,” said Blatter.
“Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his [UEFA] team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth.”
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“At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022. It would have been a gesture of peace if the two long-standing political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.”
Blatter spent 17 years as FIFA president before being banned from the game over the infamous CHF2 million “disloyal payment” to Platini, who was also forced to quit as UEFA boss.
In his first interviews since he and Platini were acquitted of fraud by the Swiss courts in July, Blatter also took a swipe – not for the first time – at his nemesis and successor, Gianni Infantino, who is currently living for part of the year in Qatar.
“What I’m wondering: why is the new FIFA president living in Qatar?” declared Blatter. “He can’t be the head of the local World Cup organisation. That’s not his job. There are two organising committees for this – a local one and one from FIFA.”
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