Former FIFA president describes Qatar’s choice for the 2022 World Cup as “a big mistake”

Former FIFA president Josep Blatter considered that the attribution to Qatar of the 2022 World Cup “was a big mistake” and considered that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was the one who intervened for the emirate to achieve that competition.

“I was disappointed by the victory of Qatar”, Blatter said in an interview published this Sunday in the online edition of the French newspaper Le Monde.

Blatter, that was forced to resign on June 2, 2015 by a corruption scandal, four days after being re-elected as FIFA president, believes that Sarkozy convinced then-UEFA president Michel Platini to support Qatar and not the United States, as they had agreed up to that point.

To this was added that on that occasion two World Cups were attributed to a blow, the one in 2018, which fell on Russia –to which Spain and Portugal also opted in a joint candidacy– and that of 2022, for which the favorite was the United States but which was finally left with Qatar.

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Blatter pointed out that about the Qatar World CupI weighed many questions, such as the size of the country or the dates on which the competition was to be held, since in summer it is too hot.

“I thought that so much danger would not jeopardize our agreement in principle to attribute the two World Cups to Russia and the United States,” he said.

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But Sarkozy’s intervention, he added, “It changed everything”, according to the former FIFA president, who does not rule out that “Circulate money” throughout that operation, without directly accusing anyone.

“In decisions as important as the attribution of a World Cup it is very possible that the money circulate and someone put it in their pocket“Said Blatter, who considered that the investigation opened by FIFA to detect it was not”strict enough”.

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“Without Sarkozy’s last-minute intervention on Platini, Qatar would never have had the World Cup,” said the former FIFA president, who linked this support to the purchase of PSG by a sovereign wealth fund of the emirate already “The major economic activities between Qatar and France.”

“It’s the first time that a political intervention changes a great football decision“He said, while reiterating that” on the social and climatic level it was a big mistake to give the World Cup to Qatar. ” (I)