Just 12 years after others learned it, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted this week that the organizers’ decision to award Qatar World Cup 2022 is a “mistake.”
The timing of Blatter’s response was odd: too late to do anything about it, and close enough to the tournament (which started November 20) to undermine the rest of the team’s efforts to fix it. worst case scenario.
The only one who really benefits is Blatter himself, still trying to rescue his mired reputation persistent accusations of corruptionthe nation that once saw a tiny Gulf state with no football heritage hosted the biggest sports show on Earth in 2010. Having said that, Netflix would be pleased by the 86-year-old. age offers a timely sale for four new streaming services of -the documentary “FIFA Uncovered”, released on Wednesday, outlining the alarming levels of secret and secret transactions. hidden in football’s most famous administrative body for decades.
“It [Qatar] too small for a country,” Blatter said Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger. “Football and the World Cup are too big for it.”
Right. Right. Clear. And it reflects badly on Blatter that there is no mention of the country’s poor human rights record or treat the LGBTQ community + when explaining why Qatar is a bad choice.
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FIFA may have changed the host country criteria in 2012 when concerns arose about the treatment of workers during the construction of stadiums in Qatar, but what does FIFA say about such fundamental human rights provisions not being considered first? there?
Years of going astray and in the wrong direction make Blatter’s comments this week all the more infuriating. In November 2013, he told delegates at the Asian Football Confederation: “It is not fair that the international media, and especially the European media, are focusing on one country’s focus. Arab nation here, Asia, by attacking, attacking, criticizing this country. We are defending it.”
A month later, he said of the treatment of migrant workers: “We met ITUC [International Trades Union Confederation] and the ILO [International Labour Organisation] And now is the time to calm down. “
In June 2014, when major sponsors questioned the purity of the bidding process, he told the BBC: “There is a sort of storm against FIFA regarding the Qatar World Cup. Sadly there is a lot of stigma and racism.”
In 2016, he accused pressure from outside political forces to influence the vote. However, just now, in Blatter’s first interview since both he and Michel Platini were acquitted of fraud in July – a ruling that is still being appealed by the authorities – has the head start of such a controversial decision that actually acknowledges the absurdity of a winter World Cup in the desert.
This isn’t the first World Cup to have off-field issues to be resolved, but the conversation around Qatar is complicated: progress has been made locally with the abolition of the kafala system and the introduction of levels. minimum wage, respecting the culture of a Muslim country while hoping football is exciting enough to give us something positive to focus on. Blatter made that even more difficult this week, pushing Qatar’s Supreme Committee further in its footsteps the same month when the tournament began.
The World Cup was supposed to be a celebration, but this incarnation is increasingly like a test of endurance for players in the middle of a domestic season and 1.2 million supporters are flocking to a country. has clearly struggled to build the infrastructure to deal with such flows.
Amidst the socio-economic, political and cultural controversies that accompanies the World Cup, Qatar will be viewed in the same way that every host country assesses its ability to host the tournament in a welcoming environment. welcome everyone. The door to easing the initial decision had long since closed, and Blatter’s re-starting the argument didn’t help.
