Qatar was the wrong choice for World Cup, says Sepp Blatter

Zurich — Sepp Blatter, the former president of Fifa when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup hosting rights in 2010, told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger “Qatar is a mistake,” adding that “the choice was bad”.

The Qatar decision has been marred by controversy, including allegations of corruption and human rights violations, since it was announced.

Blatter, who led Fifa for 17 years, has also been embroiled in accusations of corruption during his tenure. He was cleared of fraud by a Swiss court in June. The prosecutors have appealed the ruling.

“It is too small of a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for it,” Blatter said of Qatar, the first country in the Middle East to host the tournament.

He said Fifa in 2012 amended the criteria it used to select host countries in light of concerns over the working conditions at tournament-related construction sites in Qatar. “Since then, social considerations and human rights are taken into account,” he said.

Blatter said he will be watching the tournament, which kicks off in less than two weeks, from his home in Zurich. 

Meanwhile, a Qatar World Cup ambassador has told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality is “damage in the mind”. In an interview filmed in Doha and to be screened later on Tuesday, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressed the issue of homosexuality, which is illegal in the conservative Muslim country.

Some soccer players have raised concerns over the rights of fans travelling to the event, especially LGBT+ individuals and women, whom rights groups say Qatari laws discriminate against. The country expects more than 1-million visitors for the World Cup.

“They have to accept our rules here,” Salman said, in an excerpt of the interview. Homosexuality is “haram [forbidden]”, he said.

When asked why, Salman said: “I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it is damage in the mind.”

The interview was then stopped by an accompanying official. Qatar’s World Cup organisers, when contacted by Reuters, declined to comment. World soccer’s ruling body Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Reuters