Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter- Awarding World Cup to Qatar was a mistake

On the eve of the FIFA World Cup 2022, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter admitted that awarding the match to the Gulf nation of Qatar was a mistake. Blatter was serving because the FIFA president in 2010 when Qatar received the precise to host the 2022 version amidst allegations of bribery and corruption.

Speaking to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Blatter stated, “The choice of Qatar was a mistake. We actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022.”

Blatter stated that holding the World Cup again to again in long-standing political opponents Russia and USA would have been a gesture of peace.

Sepp Blatter, who headed FIFA from 1998 to 2015 was himself banned from Football for six years over corruption costs earlier than being cleared in July this yr.

During his interplay with the paper, Blatter stated, “It’s too small a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for that. For me it is clear, Qatar is a mistake. The choice was bad.”

The former FIFA president additionally questioned the choice of the present FIFA president Gianni Infantino to stay in Qatar. “Why is the new FIFA president [Gianni Infantino] living in Qatar? 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”, Blatter stated.

FIFA has confronted a whole lot of criticism ever because it determined to award the 2022 version of its showpiece occasion to Qatar again in 2010. The match has additionally been moved from its conventional June-July schedule to a winter match in November-December to account for the warmth in Qatar throughout the summer time months.

Qatar itself has come below scrutiny from numerous human rights organisations over its poor remedy of the low-paid migrant labourers who’ve constructed all of the infrastructure for the World Cup. The remedy of LGBTQ+ group and their authorized persecution within the Gulf state has additionally attracted criticism from around the globe.