The buildup to the Qatar 2022 World Cup have kindled lot of criticisms and outcries from football fans, players, and coaches all over the world.
First, people were unhappy of the tournament being played in winter. Others too have staged protest over the host country’s intolerance of human right, and the suffering of low-paid migrant workers who were hired to build the infrastructure for the showpiece.
The lastest to add his voice to the public outcry is Sepp Blatter. The Swiss was then the Fifa president when the hosting bid was accepted from the middle East country in 2010.
Blatter has expressed his regret of approving Qatar to be the hosting country.
In an interview rendered to Swiss news Tages-Anzeiger as qouted by Skysport, he said,
“The choice of Qatar was a mistake. We actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA That’s of 2022”
Blatter confessed that he did not vote for Qatar and instead wanted a “gesture of peace” by hosting the two tournaments in Russia and then the USA.
“At the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022. It would have been a gesture of peace if the two long-standing political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.
“It’s too small a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for that.”
He admitted:
“I can only repeat: the award to Qatar was a mistake, and I was responsible for that as president at the time,” he said.
“Now that the World Cup is imminent, I’m glad that, with a few exceptions, no footballers are boycotting the World Cup.”
-Sepp Blatter
