By Andrew Warshaw
May 16- The award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar has again found the spotlight after comments by FIFA President Sepp Blatter were reported – wrongly according to his office — as describing the December 2010, decision as a “mistake”.
Last September, in an exclusive interview with this website, Blatter used the same word in the context of playing the tournament in the fearsome Gulf summer. His remarks at the time were mis-interpreted as criticising the actual selection of Qatar as World Cup hosts.
This time, asked in an interview with the Swiss television channel RTS if it was an error to choose Qatar per se because of the temperatures, Blatter replied: “Yes, of course. You know, everyone makes mistakes in life.”
“The technical report indicated clearly that it was too hot in summer, but despite that the executive committee decided with quite a big majority that the tournament would be in Qatar.”
Temperatures in the Arab state can reach 50C in the heat of summer and a decision on whether to switch the World Cup to the cooler winter months will be taken by Fifa early next year.
Despite ongoing consultations with all relevant stakeholders, both Blatter and Fifa’s Secretary General Jerome Valcke have already indicated that the tournament is likely to be moved from June and July to some time in November and in the RTS interview, Blatter re-iterated that. “The best time to play is at the end of the year,” he said. “You must remain realistic … we must play in winter at the end of the year.”
Blatter’s interview was in French and his office moved quickly to issue a clarification, as it has been forced to do on a number of occasions when he has spoken in different languages.
As his latest comments were picked up across the world on radio, television and social media, Fifa insisted that Blatter was once again referring to the summer versus winter debate — and not Qatar’s right to host.
“The comment by the FIFA President concerning the organisation of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar to Swiss TV station RTS is in line with previous comments on this matter,” a statement said.
“As explained in his answer to the journalist, the President reiterated that the decision to organise the World Cup in summer was an “error” based on the technical assessment report of the bid, which had highlighted the extremely hot temperatures in summer in Qatar. At no stage did he question Qatar as the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”
Earlier this week both Blatter and the executive committee colleague he put in charge of monitoring conditions in Qatar, Theo Zwanziger, postponed a scheduled visit to the Gulf state to inspect facilities after the Qatari authorities promised they would reform the controversial kafala employment system that ties migrant workers to their employers and which has caused so much global outrage.