FORMER FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter has sensationally claimed today that giving the World Cup to Qatar 'was a mistake'.
Qatar have come under intense scrutiny from all parts of the world for their treatment of migrant workers and for their LGTBQ+ discrimination laws that punish same sex couples, or individual people.
Just this week a Qatar World Cup ambassador told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality was "damage in the mind
"They have to accept our rules here," Salman said, in an excerpt of the interview. "(Homosexuality) is haram. You know what haram (forbidden) means?" said the former Qatar international on Tuesday.
When asked why it was haram, Salman said: "I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it damages the mind."
"They have to accept our rules here," Salman said, in an excerpt of the interview. "(Homosexuality) is haram. You know what haram (forbidden) means?" he said.
When asked why it was haram, Salman said: "I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it damages the mind."
Despite the huge backlash around the country hosting the world's biggest football festival it is still set to go ahead on the 20th of November when Qatar plays Ecuador on Sunday.
Blatter: “Qatar was a mistake”.
He says French president Sarkozy personally pressured FIFA to support the Qataris, who bought $14.6bn worth of Mirage Fighter Jets shortly after they won the bid 👀
First interview since his acquittal in @tagesanzeigerhttps://t.co/6HA86vWOwR— Sam Gad Jones (@samgadjones) November 8, 2022
Blatter (86), who was one of the men on the executive committee that awarded the World Cup to the country in 2010 has now said that the tournament was meant to go to the USA, but Qatar won the bid with help from former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Michel Platini
Qatar were then given French mirage jets six months later after they were awarded the World Cup, something that Blatter claims was a 'mistake'.
Blatter spoke in Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger and said:"A week before the 2010 FIFA Congress, Michel Platini called me to say that our plan would not work. He was invited to the palace of President Sarkozy who had just had lunch with the Crown Prince of Qatar," Blatter told a Swiss newspaper .
"Sarkozy told Platini: 'Look what you and your UEFA colleagues can do for Qatar when the World Cup is awarded'.
"'Sepp, what would you do if your president asked you for something?' I then told him that the question didn't occur to me because we don't have a president in Switzerland. It turned out exactly like this: thanks to Platini's four votes, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than to the United States. That's the truth.
"Of course it was also about money. Six months later, Qatar bought fighter jets from the French for 14.6 billion dollars."
The initial decision to award Russia the 2018 World Cup and the United States in 2022 was seen as a peace gesture, but that never came to pass. Blatter has admitted that Qatar is not big enough to host the tournament.
"The choice of Qatar was a mistake," Blatter added. "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 too small a country. Football and the World Cup are too big for that."
See More: 2022 Qatar World Cup, Fifa, Sepp Blatter
