The former president of FIFA Josep Blatter Consider that attribution to Qatar The World Cup 2022 “was a big mistake” and considered that the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy He was the one who intervened so that the emirate achieved that competition.
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“I was disappointed by Qatar’s victory,” Blatter said in an interview published on Sunday in the online edition of French newspaper Le Monde.
Blatter, who was forced to resign on June 2, 2015 due to a corruption scandal, four days after his re-election as FIFA president, believes Sarkozy persuaded then-UEFA President Michel Platini to support Qatar and not the United States, as they did. He agreed up to that point.
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It was added that on that occasion two World Cups were attributed to a blow, the one in 2018, which fell to Russia – who were also jointly nominated by Spain and Portugal – and the one in 2022, for which he was the favourite. The United States, but Qatar eventually stayed.
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Blatter pointed out that there are many questions about the Qatar World Cup, such as the size of the country or the dates in which the competition should be held, when the weather is very hot in the summer.
“I thought that such a big risk would not jeopardize our agreement in principle to award the World Cup twice to Russia and the United States,” he said. But he added that Sarkozy’s intervention “changed everything”, according to the former FIFA president, who does not rule out “the circulation of money” during that process without direct accusations against anyone.
political interference
Blatter said, “In decisions no less important than attributing the World Cup, it is very likely that the money will be circulated and someone will put it in his pocket,” and considered that the investigation opened by FIFA to reveal this was not “rigorous enough.” “
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Said the former FIFA chief, who linked this support to the purchase of PSG by the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund and “the main economic activities between Qatar and France”.
“It is the first time that political interference changes a major decision in football,” he said, stressing that “on the social and climatic level, it was a huge mistake to award the World Cup to Qatar.”
EFE
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