:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/K6QF6YM32NH27EFJTJFF3YMNOI.jpg)
La World Cup will start in 12 days and there are still criticisms towards Qatar, the country that was chosen as the host for the tournament in its 2022 edition. The nation's candidacy in the Middle East was plagued with irregularities years ago, and more recently, cases of human rights abuses have come to light, resulting in fatalities during the construction of the stadiums. Under these circumstances, Joseph Blatter, former president of FIFA, expressed regret for the decision made at that time.
ALSO CHECK: Real Madrid could lose Benzema on the last match of LaLiga before the World Cup
"The choice of Qatar was a mistake and I assume my responsibility as I was the president of FIFA at that time", mentioned the former president of the world's governing soccer body in an interview with the Swiss portal Tages-Anzeiger. "Qatar is a small country. Football and World Cups are for big countries," he added.
Blatter also shared responsibility for his "mistake" in the choice along with Michel Platini: "A week before the 2010 FIFA congress, Michel (Platini) called me to tell me that our plan (they were planning to give the World Cup to the United States) was not going to work. He had just been invited by French president Sarkozy, who in turn had several meetings with the crown prince of Qatar".
As well, he stated: "Platini's votes were decisive for the awarding of Qatar, that's the truth. And of course, there was a money issue involved. Six months after those meetings, Qatar bought fighter jets from the French worth 14.6 billion dollars".
In another passage of the interview, Blatter acknowledged his strained relationship with current FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whom he said he doesn't understand "living in Qatar at the moment". "He cannot be at the same time the local director of the organization," he pointed out.
Finally, despite the criticisms of Qatar 2022, he expressed his satisfaction that there were no player boycotts of the World Cup in the Arab country. "With the first whistle of the referee, we will no longer talk about all these problems, only about sports," he concluded.
When does the Qatar 2022 World Cup start?
The twenty-second edition of the World Cup will start on Sunday, November 20. The inaugural match will be played between Qatar and Ecuador at the Al Khor Stadium, starting at 11:00 a.m. (Peruvian and Ecuadorian time). DirecTV Sports and Latina will broadcast the match in Peru.