On the eve of the FIFA World Cup 2022, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter admitted that awarding the tournament to the Gulf country of Qatar was a mistake. Blatter was serving as the FIFA president in 2010 when Qatar won the right to host the 2022 edition amidst allegations of bribery and corruption.
Speaking to the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Blatter said, “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 said that holding the World Cup back to back 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 6 years over corruption charges before being cleared in July this year.
During his interaction with the paper, Blatter said, “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 also questioned the decision of the current FIFA president Gianni Infantino to live 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 said.
FIFA has faced a lot of criticism ever since it decided to award the 2022 edition of its showpiece event to Qatar back in 2010. The tournament has also been moved from its traditional June-July schedule to a winter tournament in November-December to account for the heat in Qatar during the summer months.
Qatar itself has come under scrutiny from various human rights organisations over its poor treatment of the low-paid migrant labourers who have built all the infrastructure for the World Cup. The treatment of LGBTQ+ community and their legal persecution in the Gulf state has also attracted criticism from around the world.