Picking Qatar to host the World Cup was a mistake 12 years ago, FIFA's president at the time Sepp Blatter said Tuesday.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter announces Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup at a ceremony in December 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland.
"It's a country that's too small," Blatter said of Qatar, the smallest host by size since the 1954 tournament in Switzerland."Football and the World Cup are too big for that." "It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time," said Blatter, who has long said he voted for the United States. Its bid was beaten by Qatar in the final round of a five-candidate contest to be 2022 host.
Blatter on Tuesday repeated his claim that Sarkozy put pressure on Platini, and again gave his version of a telephone call Platini made to him after the Paris meeting that the World Cup voting plan had changed. "Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good," Platini told an AP reporter in Zurich seven years ago. He acknowledged that he"might have told" American officials that he would be voting for their 2022 bid.
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