Inside Qatar's World Cup bid: 'Expanding the game', bribery allegations and FIFA's U-turn

To describe Qatar hosting the World Cup as “controversial” would be a massive understatement.

Ever since the tiny Middle Eastern country won the rights to stage football’s biggest and most prestigious tournament on December 2, 2010 there have been protests, allegations, petitions, investigations and much more.

The man who announced their triumph, ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter, has now admitted he regrets what happened. “The choice of Qatar was a mistake,” Blatter told Tages-Anzeiger. “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.”