2 years ago
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Sepp Blatter archetypal joined Fifa arsenic method manager successful 1975 and was voted president successful 1998Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter says the determination to grant the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was a "mistake".
Blatter, 86, was president of satellite football's governing assemblage erstwhile Qatar was awarded the tourney successful 2010.
The Gulf authorities has been criticised for its stance connected same-sex relationships, quality rights grounds and attraction of migrant workers.
"It is excessively tiny of a country. Football and the World Cup are excessively large for it," helium told Swiss paper Tages Anzeiger.
Blatter said Fifa had adjusted the criteria utilized to prime big countries successful 2012 aft concerns were raised astir the attraction of migrant workers gathering World Cup stadiums successful Qatar.
"Since then, societal considerations and quality rights are taken into account," helium added.
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Blatter spent 17 years arsenic Fifa president but was forced to measurement down successful 2015 implicit allegations helium unlawfully arranged a transportation of 2 cardinal Swiss francs ($2.19m; £1.6m) to erstwhile Uefa president Michel Platini, who was besides forced to resign from his presumption astatine Fifa.
Both men were charged with fraud past November but were recovered not guilty astatine a proceedings successful Switzerland successful July.
The determination to grant the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively has been dogged by accusations of wide corruption, with 2 investigations launched by Swiss prosecutors and the US Department of Justice successful 2015.
Qatar and Russia person ever denied immoderate wrongdoing, and some were efficaciously cleared by Fifa's ain probe successful 2017.
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