By Andrew Warshaw in London
October 7 – German icon Franz Beckenbauer, whose distinguished career as a player and coach was followed by a prominent role at Fifa, admitted today he was “surprised” Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup and that the tournament should also be staged in winter.
Der Kaiser, now 69, was a highly respected member of the Fifa executive committee when the Dec, 2010, ballot for 2018 and 2022 took place, handing host status to Russia and Qatar respectively.
Beckenbauer has since retired from Fifa and has never publicly revealed who he voted for though it has been widely reported that he opted for Russia in 2018. But following an address to the Securing Sport conference in London focussing on his career, he was quizzed by reporters about the voting process.
“I was surprised Qatar was chosen,” said Beckenbauer. “Their bid was very good but so were the others. There were no great differences. But it’s not possible to play football in the summer despite the Qataris creating a system to cool down the stadiums in order to make it more comfortable. Technically speaking that’s possible but is it really necessary to waste so much energy if you can play in winter? That would be my suggestion.”
Beckenbauer was at one point provisionally banned by Fifa from all football-related activity for failing to assist the investigation into alleged corruption surrounding the bid process carried out by ethics investigator Michael Garcia.
The 90-day ban was lifted before it even got into its stride when Beckenbauer subsequently co-operated and answered all the questions put to him.
Explaining exactly what happened from his side, Beckenbauer told reporters that he was “of the opinion that I would not have to fill in” the necessary questionnaire since he had left Fifa several years previously, and because the highly detailed questions were in English.
“That’s how the deadline was missed,” he said. “The ethics committee was of a different opinion …. but that’s now all in the past. They were legal questions which I could not answer in English but I did eventually.”
Beckenbauer, speaking mainly in German, did his best to sidestep questions about Sepp Blatter’s future as Fifa president which has been the focus of so much attention, particularly in Europe.
“If he’s fit enough, Im sure he will have considered his reasons. He’s not the youngest any more but why not if he feels up to it. Who should stop him? If I look around the confederations, I see that in Africa and Asia especially he enjoys considerable trust. The reason why there are no alternative candidates is that it would be difficult to beat him.”
Beckenbauer also added his voice – as many others have done — to those who believe Garcia’s 430-page report should be published. “If you ask me directly, as someone who is interested in football obviously if there is nothing to hide, yes certainly it should be public.”
Tellingly, Beckenbauer said he himself had nothing to hide and insisted he was never offered any inducements to vote a certain way during the 2018 and 2022 bid process. “Nobody addressed me directly, nobody offered me anything in order to influence my vote.”
During his address to the conference Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup both as a player and coach before organising the 2006 World Cup, was asked to identify the high point of his career. He didn’t hesitate.
“You can win the World Cup every four years but to win the bid for your own country, this is an opportunity you only get once. That, for me, was the greatest moment ever in my sporting career.”