Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that he regrets having allowed Qatar to host the World Cup.
It is among the many selections that Blatter made at FIFA which led to mass criticism.
“The selection of Qatar was a mistake and I take my duty as a result of I used to be the FIFA president on the time,” Blatter mentioned to Swiss media Tages-Anzeiger.
Nonetheless, Blatter didn’t level to questions on human rights violations or the nation’s social freedoms, his criticism was of the technical and logistical elements of selecting Qatar to host such a big occasion.
“Qatar is a small nation. Soccer and World Cups are for giant nations,” Blatter mentioned.
“We agreed within the Government Committee that Russia would host the 2018 World Cup and the USA the 2022 World Cup.
“It could have been a gesture of peace if the 2 political rivals had hosted the World Cup one after the opposite,” defined the previous FIFA president, suspended from his publish in 2015 over corruption allegations.
Different candidates included Japan, Australia and South Korea, in addition to Qatar.
Prices towards Platini
“Every week earlier than the 2010 FIFA congress, Michel (Platini) known as me to inform me that our plan (they have been considering of giving the World Cup to the US) was not going to work,” Blatter mentioned.
“I had simply been invited by French president Nicola Sarkozy, who had held a number of conferences with the crown prince of Qatar.
“Platini‘s votes have been decisive for the awarding of Qatar, that is the reality. And naturally there was a query of cash concerned. Six months after these conferences, Qatar purchased fighter jets from the French value 14.6 billion {dollars}.”