Sepp Blatter speaks out in support of Qatar's World Cup despite fresh corruption claims
Sunday 30 November 2014 15:14, UK
FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists the 2022 World Cup will not be moved from Qatar after fresh allegations about the bidding process.
A dossier compiled by The Sunday Times and published by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee accuses Russia and Qatar of engaging in vote-trading in their successful attempts to secure the World Cup.
In fresh claims, England's 2018 bid are also alleged to have engineered a failed vote-swap with their counterparts in the South Korea 2022 bid.
All three organisations have denied any wrongdoing in their bids to host the tournaments, and a report published recently by Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee, cleared Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments respectively.
Blatter believes there is no reason to reconsider Qatar’s bid, despite the ongoing saga.
Speaking to Asian Football Confederation members in Manila, he said: "2022, it is Qatar, and ladies and gentleman, believe me, with all that has been said around the world by whom? Those not involved with what happens in football.
“The World Cup in 2022 will be played in Qatar."
FIFA faces continous criticism for not publishing a report by ethics investigator Michael Garcia into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
But Blatter, seeking a fifth term as head of FIFA, took the opportunity to throw his weight behind preparations for Qatar's World Cup.
“It is the second time we will go to organise the World Cup in Asia,” he said. “The first was a lovely combination, a co hosting, between Japan and Korea Republic. It was a great success, a big success.
"But we have the next one. It will be the first time in the Arabic world but there is another competition that I would like to underline, the under 17 women's tournament in 2016.
"For the first time... we are coming with women's World Cup in 2016 to the kingdom of Jordan. It is the trust and confidence of FIFA towards the Arabic world that they can organise all the competitions."
