Football Update: Sepp Blatter declares Russia and Qatar as natural choices to host the World Cup
FIFA officials have come under fire recently following their decision to award Russia and Qatar with the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2018 and 2022 respectively. However, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has defended the move, saying that FIFA are
looking to take the world’s biggest tournament to new places. Blatter stated that after the previous tournaments held in Asia and Africa, it was only ‘natural’ for the World Cup to be taken to other areas of the world.
Speaking to their official website, the FIFA president said, “When I became the FIFA president, the decision was made to go into Asia. And then I said we had to go to Africa, which is what we did. It's only natural, then, that we should keep on moving into
new regions. We have made historic decisions in terms of sport and geopolitics. We've sent the World Cup to new territories.” He further stated that the 2018 World Cup will go to Eastern Europe and the vast country that is http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Russia-c2991, and the 2022 event will go
to Qatar, in the Arab world.
England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup did not get much support from FIFA officials. The football-mad nation earned just 2 votes from the 22 person panel. FIFA received widespread criticism for not making clear their policy of staging the tournament in
countries that have not previously hosted the event. Critics argued that if FIFA officials were so keen to take the World Cup to previously unexplored territories, then why were countries like http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011 allowed to place bids?
The decision to award http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Qatar-c2986 with the hosting rights to the World Cup in 2022 has been the subject of much debate in recent weeks. Many believe that the small Gulf nation is completely unfit to host such a massive tournament. Temperatures in the summer can
soar to up to 50 degrees Celsius; hardly ideal playing conditions. FIFPro, the players' union, is calling for the tournament to be rescheduled for the winter months, something that has never happened in the past 80 years. However, the decision to host the
tournament in Qatar still stands, and many have now started to question Sepp Blatter’s position as, what is effectively, head of world football.
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