There have been lots of speculations about how it could happen that FIFA selected a world cup host from Middle East Asia knowing the environmental surroundings over there in the month of June – the traditional timing of FIFA world cup. Many soccer experts have already labeled 2022 world cup as the biggest threat to players’ health, and above all, to thousands of fans who will visit in this part of the world to cheer their teams. Now, FIFA president has revealed how it could be possible that Qatar won on ballet polling despite the fact the most of the members were in support of US as the world cup host. Blatter has said that high level politics played its role at different levels to decide the host of much optimistic world cup; in fact, no one had thought that final result will be in favor of an Asian country where temperature crosses more than 50 degree Celsius during June. In an interview given to L’Equipe, Blatter said, “There were interventions at different levels so that it would go to an Arab country. Geopolitics did its work. Before the awarding of a World Cup or Olympic Games, there is a meeting with the politicians. We had it here in Zurich. They influence the voters.”
He also openly said that there had also been some payoff to get the rights for world cup hosting and he is ready to face an investigation if requires. He added, “Nobody proved that there were payoffs so that Qatar was chosen. The ethics commission can open an investigation. That would be good to prove that this was done correctly. Whether it’s the right choice, that’s up to the executive committee. The problem is knowing whether it can be played in June-July in Qatar.”
His revelation has already created a heat in soccer fraternity especially among those who have long been criticizing FIFA for not taking care of health of players and fans who would have to face the real challenge on the field. However, Qatar is aggressively open to implement extraordinary renovation work at all the world cup venues including installing a cooling technology whereby all the matches could be played in a controlled temperature, but according to Blatter, it would only solve half of the problems. He added, “The World Cup is more than just stadiums, it’s an array of social and cultural activities around the competition. What do we do? It’s not rational and reasonable to play in June-July. Our technical report, which was available to all the members of the executive committee before the 2010 vote, exposed these difficulties.”
So, expect the unexpected in coming weeks about the hosting schedule or location about 2022 world cup.