Former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, has expressed regret over the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. <\/p>\n
He described the move as a \u201cmistake\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 86-year-old was the president of world football governing body when its executive committee voted for the tournament to be played in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 respectively.<\/p>\n
Ahead of this year\u2019s World Cup, there have been concerns about lowly-paid migrant workers and discriminatory laws against same-sex relations.<\/p>\n
Blatter insists he didn\u2019t vote for Qatar, but instead wanted a \u201cgesture of peace\u201d by having the two tournaments in Russia and then in the USA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe choice of Qatar was a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, we actually agreed in the executive committee that Russia should get the 2018 World Cup and the USA that of 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been a gesture of peace if the two long-standing political opponents had hosted the World Cup one after the other,\u201d Blatter told Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.<\/p>\n
He added that Qatar is \u201ctoo small a country\u201d and \u201cfootball and the World Cup are too big for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, has expressed regret over the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. He described the move as a \u201cmistake\u201d. The 86-year-old was the president of world football governing body when its executive committee voted for the tournament to be played in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":227773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"custom","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"single-left","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"floatbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":{"override_bookmark_button":"0","override_show_bookmark_button":"0"},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11401,138,8822,50184],"class_list":["post-227770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2022-world-cup","tag-fifa","tag-qatar","tag-sepp-blatter"],"yoast_head":"\n