Former FIFA president Blatter says it’s a mistake to make Qatar the host nation of the 2022 World Cup

Former FIFA President Joseph Blatter told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that the choice of Qatar as the host nation of the 2022 World Cup was a mistake. The 2022 World Cup was supposed to be held in the USA.

“Choosing Qatar was a mistake. At that time, we agreed in the executive committee that Russia would host the World Cup in 2018, and the United States in 2022. It would be a gesture of peace if two longtime political opponents organized the World Cup one after the other,” said the former head of the International Football Federation (quoted from Voetbal International).

Before the FIFA Congress in 2010, Mr. Blatter said he received a call from Michel Platini, who then led UEFA, and said that the plan to provide the 2022 World Cup to the United States “won’t work.” On the eve of Mr. Platini with a request to give Qatar the right to host the World Cup, the then President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, said the former head of FIFA.

Mr. Blatter said that it was thanks to the four votes of the members of the executive committee, whom Michel Platini persuaded, that Qatar managed to win the election of the organizers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In his opinion, France helped Qatar, including because of the money. Six months after the vote, Qatar bought fighter jets from the French for $14.6 billion, Blatter said.

Both Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini have previously been charged with fraud, mismanagement, breach of trust and forgery. July 8 Swiss court justified football officials.

Today, November 8, the ambassador of the World Cup in Qatar, Khalid Salman, in an interview with the German channel ZDF, called homosexuality “damage to consciousness”, reports AP. Mr. Salman said that the country is ready to accept representatives of sexual minorities, but they, in turn, must “accept the rules of Qatar.”

Earlier, the Qatari Prime Minister guaranteed the safety of football fans to German Interior Minister Nancy Feather, regardless of “where they come from, who they love and what they believe,” the agency reports.

Swiss broadcaster SRF reported that the Qatari authorities have been spying on senior football officials, including FIFA, for several years in order to influence their decisions using illegally obtained confidential information. These suspicions were categorically denied by the Qatari authorities.

More details – in the material “Kommersant” “The Long Arm of Qatar”.

Erdni Kagaltynov