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Shortly before the FIFA World Cup, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter criticized the tournament being held in Qatar. He calls this decision – made in 2010 under his rule – a mistake.
Blatter informed the Swiss media group Tamedia of the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar. “Football and the World Cup are too big for a small country like Qatar, he said. It was a bad choice and I was responsible for it as FIFA President.”
APE
The 86-year-old Swiss himself pleaded in 2010 for a World Cup in 2022 in the United States. In combination with the 2018 World Cup, which was awarded to Russia in the same vote, he saw in it a political message of brotherhood.
“It would have been a gesture of peace if these two political adversaries had organized the World Cup one after the other.”
In the years following the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, Blatter also criticized the choice made. In 2014, he was already expressing regret. However, FIFA under his leadership did not take any concrete steps to deprive the country of the tournament.
A Netflix documentary about fraudulent practices at FIFA under the direction of Blatter will be released shortly.
Van Praag: ‘It shouldn’t have happened’
Michael van Praag, the former KNVB chairman who bid for a World Cup in the Netherlands in 2010, already suspected corruption when the World Cup was awarded to Qatar. “FIFA should have opened an investigation immediately,” he said last week. NPO Radio 1.
“I also urged Blatter to do it. But when they started building all the stadiums, there was nothing FIFA could do. Then there would have been huge claims. The World Cup should never have unfold in Qatar like this.”
Of the 22 FIFA executives assigned to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, 16 were subsequently convicted or linked to corruption. “Michel Platini, then UEFA president, wanted the 2022 World Cup in America,” says Van Praag.
“Until a delegation from Qatar went to Nicolas Sarkozy (the French president, editor’s note). If Platini still wanted to lobby for Qatar, Sarkozy seems to have asked him. PSG fell into the hands of the Qataris a little later and Platini’s son had a nice France probably wouldn’t have gotten worse either.
