Handing the World Cup to Qatar was a “mistake” and a “bad choice” according to the former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who has repeated claims the decision was a result of secret political pressure.
Blatter says the tournament was handed to the Gulf state because of the actions of the former Uefa president, Michel Platini, under pressure from France’s then president, Nicolas Sarkozy. “For me it is clear: Qatar is a mistake. The choice was bad,” Blatter told the Swiss newspaper 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 longstanding political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other.”
