FIFA is so corrupt it makes the US Congress look good.
Qatar getting the 2022 Word Cup over the US was linked to a 14.6 billion EUR military deal for French aircraft, claims former FIFA President Stepp Blatter. He explained in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger how such a small country as Qatar managed to host the World Cup this year and why the US was not chosen.
According to Blatter, a week before the FIFA Congress in 2010, the then head of UEFA, Michel Platini, was invited to a private conversation at the palace of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had dined with the Crown Prince of Qatar a day earlier. Sarkozy asked Platini to support Qatar’s candidacy to host the World Cup.
Platini is a French national and was confused by the request he received from the president of his country. Platini asked Blatter for advice to which the head of FIFA joked he did not think about such a favor because his country Switzerland does not have a president. However, it was Platini’s four votes that were decisive to ensure that the right to host the 2022 World Cup went to Qatar, not the United States.
Later it became known why the French president was so happy with holding the Championship in Qatar. Six months after choosing the venue for the World Cup, Qatar signed a contract with Paris for the purchase of fighters worth $ 14.6 billion.
Blatter himself called this choice a big mistake: Qatar is a very small country and the World Cup is such a big event. The choice of Qatar was a mistake.
In addition, such a decision prevented the implementation of the strategy of political balance, which was adopted at the FIFA Executive Committee. Initially, they planned to give the right to host the 2022 World Cup to the United States after Russia became the previous host country of the Championship in 2018.
It would be a gesture of peace if two longtime political opponents took turns organizing a World Cup, Blatter said. The allegations of corruption in the selection of the host country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup resurfaced now just a few days before the start of the tournament.
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