Former president FIFASepp Blatter admits that Qatar’s nomination to host the 2022 World Cup is a mistake.
Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010. At that time Blatter was still president of FIFA.
“Qatar was a mistake. It was a bad choice.”
“Qatar is too small to host the World Cup. Football and the World Cup are too big for that,” Blatter said in an interview with Tages Anzeiger.
The choice of Qatar as a guest has been accompanied by a number of controversies, including allegations of corruption and human rights violations, since it was first announced.
Blatter later said he learned a lesson from appointing Qatar as a guest. Since 2012, FIFA has said that Blatter has made changes to the criteria for selecting the host country for the World Cup.
“From then on, human and social rights considerations came into play,” Blatter said.
The 2022 World Cup will run from November 20 to December 18. This is the first time that Qatar has hosted and the second time that the World Cup has been held on the Asian continent since the 2002 World Cup which took place in Korea and Japan.
Blatter himself was president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015, which is 17 years to fill the position.
(ptr / sry)
