World Cup 2022: Ex-Fifa boss sharply criticizes – "Qatar's choice was a mistake"
Created: 11/08/2022, 4:00 p.m
By: Melanie Gottschalk
In 2010, then-Fifa President Sepp Blatter announced that the 2022 World Cup would go to Qatar.
© Ulmer/imago
A World Cup has probably never been as controversial as the one in Qatar.
Ex-Fifa President Sepp Blatter also finds clear words.
Frankfurt – In twelve days, the 2022 World Cup begins in Qatar.
But instead of looking forward to the biggest football tournament in the world, there is a lot of criticism - and has been since 2010, when the emirate was announced as the venue.
Human rights organizations are sounding the alarm about how migrant workers are being treated, and football fans are repeatedly calling on teams to boycott the tournament.
Shortly before the opening game of the 2022 World Cup between hosts Qatar and Ecuador, former Fifa President Sepp Blatter also commented on the tournament being awarded to the emirate, reports
fr.de
, among others .
“The choice of Qatar was a mistake.
It's too small a country - football and the World Cup are too big for that," he said in the
Tages-Anzeiger
.
"The choice was bad.
And I was responsible for that as President at the time.” Blatter himself has repeatedly emphasized in the past that he voted for the United States.
World Cup 2022: Sepp Blatter blames ex-Uefa boss
Fifa originally considered awarding the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to the USA.
"It would have been a gesture of peace if the two political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other," Blatter emphasized in the
Tages-Anzeiger.
But then Qatar stepped in and got the contract in the end.
The USA will now host the 2026 World Cup together with Canada and Mexico.
In Blatter's opinion, the fact that Qatar was able to host the 2022 World Cup at all is mainly due to Michael Platini, the President of Uefa.
The then French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pushed him to vote for Qatar because he had good relations there.
As a result, some other countries also migrated and voted for the emirate.
World Cup 2022: host country Qatar again under criticism
But the criticism, which often comes from politics, seems justified.
Because twelve days before the start of the 2022 World Cup, the official ambassador Khalid Salman caused a stir again with his statements in a
ZDF
interview.
Ex-national player Khalid Salman said for the documentary "Geheimsache Qatar" that he also wanted to "talk about gays": "The most important thing is that everyone will accept that they come here.
But they will have to accept our rules," said the 60-year-old.
Above all, he has problems when children see gays, Salman added.
Because they would then learn something that is not good.
In his eyes, being gay is “haram”, i.e. forbidden.
But that's not all: "It's mental damage," he added in front of the camera.
According to the broadcaster, the interview was then terminated.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will probably continue to be criticized during the tournament because of such statements.
(msb)
