Sepp Blatter was the president of FIFA when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup in 2010.
in July. Prosecutors have appealed the decision. “Football and the World Cup are too big for that.”
The smallest host by size since the 1954 tournament took place in Switzerland, Qatar will host 32 teams that will play 64 games in eight stadiums in and around Doha, the site of massive and controversial construction projects for the tournament, which begins Nov. 20. Over a million visitors are expected, but many will commute from neighboring countries because of limited places to stay in Qatar.“It was a bad choice, and I was responsible for that as president at the time,” Blatter said.
Present at the meeting were Michel Platini and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, then the crown prince of Qatar and now the emir. Blatter claimed Tuesday, as he has in the past, that Sarkozy pressured Platini, repeating his version of a telephone call from Platini saying that the voting plan had changed.“Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his [UEFA] team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth,” Blatter said of the 14-8 vote.
“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” Platini told the Associated Press seven years ago, acknowledging he “might have told” American officials that he would be voting for their 2022 bid. Along with Blatter, Platini also was acquitted of corruption charges over the summer., something Blatter did not directly address other than to say “social considerations and human rights are taken into account” since FIFA’s criteria for host countries was amended in 2012.
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