NFR - Sepp Blatter: awarding 2022 World Cup to Qatar was a mistake

[SKSW6]

Fifa President Sepp Blatter has admitted it was "a mistake" to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar because of the extreme heat players will face in the Gulf state.

Speaking to Swiss channel RTS, Mr Blatter said: "Of course, it was a mistake. You know, one makes a lot of mistakes in life.

"The technical report indicated clearly that it was too hot in summer, but despite that the executive committee decided with quite a big majority that the tournament would be in Qatar."

Blatter insisted however that Qatar had not "bought" the World Cup - the bid did spend large amounts of money on sponsorship and development programmes.

He added: "No, I have never said it was bought, but that it was due to political considerations."

A decision on whether the tournament will be moved from summer to the winter in eight years' time has been postponed by Fifa until after next month's World Cup finals in Brazil.

[Nero]

The only mistake Blatter will feel he has made is not get enough of a back hander for the greif hes getting over it.

[JIMMY D]

What a joke! He is such a crook!

[nose]

The award to Qatar was not a mistake at all.
The award to Qatar was corrupt, I think the mistake was when he said it was a mistake.
I would not trust FIOFA with a child's piggy bank.
If they wanted Qatar or a similar country to host the world cup then before the competition for that country's selection they should have said (FIFA), to allow country's like to compete we will allow the world cup in winter and then everyone would have known what they were voting for.

I hope that makes sense, but I am sure you get my drift.

And the award to Russia was the biggest stitch I can recall ever.
If FIFA wanted the best tournament then it should have been here. If they wanted a new country, they should have said so in advance and then we needn't have bothered putting in all that effort in applying

FIFA has no moral fabric or fiber, money talks and the majority of the voting members can apparently be bought and sold to the highest bidder. I cannot prove that with hard evidence but when something is big, grey has enormous floppy ears and looks like an elephant then it most probably is!

[Jack Fulham]

Why did they even allow them to bid. Now thousands of migrant workers Qatar working in terrible unsafe conditions to build ridiculous stadium which most will be redundant once the world cup is over. It is shameful how corrupt FIFA is.

[FPT]

 

[Logicalman]

They (the FIFA committee) have no-one to answer to.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Bill2]

Too many brown envelopes changed hands in my opinion.

[K33NY]

Sepp Blater himself is a born mistanke....

[Nightwind15]

I would like to see the paper trail on all the money that changed hands.  There are likely many that will never have to work again in the FIFA organization. 

[Pluto]

Most obviously corrupt footballing decision ever. It's an outrage that they've got away with it so far and national federations haven't had the backbone to stand up to them, but I suspect it will all come out eventually.

[Burt]

Wow... No flies on him. Many congratulations Mr Blatter for leaping to this conclusion so quickly. You're well ahead of the rest of us.

[Forever Fulham]

Bribes, lots of bribes, giant piles of money?  Trunks of Mercedes vehicles loaded with cash? 

[Whitesideup]

The award to Qatar was not a mistake at all.
The award to Qatar was corrupt, I think the mistake was when he said it was a mistake.
I would not trust FIOFA with a child's piggy bank.
If they wanted Qatar or a similar country to host the world cup then before the competition for that country's selection they should have said (FIFA), to allow country's like to compete we will allow the world cup in winter and then everyone would have known what they were voting for.

I hope that makes sense, but I am sure you get my drift.

And the award to Russia was the biggest stitch I can recall ever.
If FIFA wanted the best tournament then it should have been here. If they wanted a new country, they should have said so in advance and then we needn't have bothered putting in all that effort in applying

FIFA has no moral fabric or fiber, money talks and the majority of the voting members can apparently be bought and sold to the highest bidder. I cannot prove that with hard evidence but when something is big, grey has enormous floppy ears and looks like an elephant then it most probably is!

Good post. Absolutely correct. The level of corruption is amazing. For God's sake, Qatar has only 1,600 registered footballers I believe. No doubt they will buy a few, award a few convenient citizenships,  so they at least resemble a football team. Imagine the hosts being beaten 15-0 !!

And as it was proved that they bought the Concaf vote, why not declare the whole thing illegal? Does it have anything to do with other payments made that could come out of the woodwork as well? And as someone else mentioned.. national organizations have no appetite or guts to take on FIFA. I would quite happily see us quit, although I would be happier if we could take a few other nations with us so we could play some international fixtures at least.