LONDON: Former Fifa IFA president Sepp Blatter said members of the executive committee, during his reign of the world football’s governing body, had ignored his advice that Qatar was unqualified to host the World Cup when they voted in favour of its bid to stage the 2022 edition of tournament.
Qatar’s bid victory was the outcome of a mix of agreement and collusion in violation of Fifa rules and regulations, he said.
It also came a result of political pressure exerted by former French president of Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) and Fifa member Michel Platini, he added.
Blatter earlier pointed out political intervention of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy to award Qatar the right to host the tournament, according to British Sunday Times newspaper.
In his book, published recently, Blatter said no one looked into the detailed inspection report on bidding countries for the decision had already been taken.
“If we had read the reports carefully, we would have realised that it would be impossible to hold the World Cup in Qatar,” he pointed out.
He said Platini contacted him in 2010 to inform him that he was under pressure from French President Sarkozi who urged him to switch his vote in support of Qatar’s bid during a dinner banquet in addition pressures from Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“I don’t know if Qatar’s victory to host the 2022 World Cup has anything to do with what happened later on in France, referring to millions of euros worth of agreements Qatar had signed with France to purchase jets in addition to Qatar’s acquisition of Paris Sant-German football team for huge amount of money”, he went on to say in his book.