Former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, has stated that it was a mistake to have awarded the World Cup tournament to Qatar. He said that Qatar was too small and hosting the World Cup tournament will be too big for the country.
According to Blatter, he voted for the tournament to be held in the United States instead of Qatar and he blamed the UEFA President, Michael Platini, for swinging the vote in favor of Qatar. The vote was a 14-8 in favor of Qatar by the entire FIFA committee and these votes were cast 12 years ago.
“It was a bad choice and I was responsible for that as president at the time. Thanks to the four votes of Platini and his [UEFA] team, the World Cup went to Qatar rather than the United States. It’s the truth.”
Sepp Blatter
The decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively raised accusations and suspicions of corruption which was investigated by Swiss prosecutors and the United States Department of Justice back in 2015.
Qatar was accused of paying the officials of FIFA 3m Euros (3.7 million dollars) to secure their backing as the host country for the World Cup tournament.
Both countries denied the allegations thrown at them, and these accusations were cleared by an investigation held by FIFA itself in the year 2017. The host nation of this year’s World Cup tournament, Qatar, comprises of a Muslim community who do not accommodate the idea of same-sex relationships.
A World Cup ambassador, stated that homosexuality is a “damage in the mind” therefore practitioners and advocates of the LGBTQ+ community who will be attending the tournament should adhere to their rules.
However, organizers of the tournament in Qatar have stated that, “everyone is welcome” to the country to watch the football matches and they claim that there will be no form of discrimination against anyone.
Arrest Of LGBTQ+ Citizens In Qatar
In a recent report, it was stated that the Qatari security forces continue to arrest citizens who are involved in homosexuality and these culprits are sometimes forced to undergo conversion therapy.
Meanwhile, the government of Qatar declared the allegations of this report as false. In relation to the World Cup tournament that is scheduled to take off on the 20th November in Qatar, FIFA has written to all 32 teams competing for the cup, telling them to focus on the football.
The association stated that football should not be pulled into these ideological or political “battles”, and in response to this, ten European football associations including England and Whales indicated that “human rights are universal and apply everywhere.”
In light of this, captain of the England national team, Henry Kane together with the captains of the nine other teams, has decided to wear “One Love” armbands to protest against the homosexuality laws in Qatar.
Other national teams such as Denmark and Australia have also put in place measures to protest against same sex laws in Qatar and urged the tournament host to abolish these laws.
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