Choice of Qatar was a mistake: Blatter 

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who served at the top of the global football administration from 1998 to 2015, admitted that awarding Qatar the hosting rights for FIFA World Cup 2022 was a mistake.

The build-up to this year’s World Cup has been dogged by several on and off-field issues, of which the on-field concerns were to shift the timing of the World Cup to November-December, in the middle of the European football season, instead of the regular time for the event, which is in June-July, due to extreme heat conditions of the country at that time.

As Al Jazeera claimed, the players would have had to play in temperatures around 105 degrees Fahrenheit if the tournament was held during the regular time.

The off-field issues are more serious as it concerns humanitarian issues. Qatar had used their migrant workers to build the infrastructures in due time, who were paid very low. Also, there were reports of thousands of immigrant workers dying in the process.

In an interview with the Swiss newspaper, Tages-Anzeiger, Blatter said, “The choice of Qatar was a mistake.”

“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 (Qatar) too small a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for that,” the former FIFA President said.

Blatter was the president of FIFA in 2010 when its executive committee voted for the World Cup to be held in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively. Blatter resigned in 2015, and after seven years, he took responsibility for the mistake.

“I can only repeat: the award to Qatar was a mistake, and I was responsible for that as president at the time,” he said.