Sepp Blatter and FIFA on defensive, as England’s discontent gathers pace
Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president has come out and stated that England are sore losers in world football.
According to the English media, FIFA has gone from a corrupt organization to a totally corrupt organization.
In a Swiss magazine, Sepp Blatter responded to these comments by terming England as bad losers. The whole saga has come to a head after FIFA’s executive committee voted Russia as the hosts of the 2018 World Cup and Qatar as the hosts of the 2022 World Cup.
England also made a bid for the 2018 World Cup and they were favourites to capture the hosting rights for the prestigious competition but their attitude in terms of media and otherwise, cost them in the end.
Despite the fact that England had the best technical rating out of all the bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA’s executive committee members opted to vote out the 2018 English bid, as it only gathered two votes out of the total 22 in the first round of votes. In the second round, Russia obtained 13 votes and in doing so it became the host of the 2018 World Cup tournament.
Other nations, who were bidding for the 2018 World Cup, were Netherlands/Belgium and Portugal/Spain.
Blatter has also lauded FIFA’s ambitions to open football to a new world and a new culture. In his latest interview he said, "We have opened new markets for the development of football, where the roots may not have hatched”
Blatter further remarked on the fact that FIFA is looking to give regions, which haven’t seen much football, a chance to show their potential as possible markets for Football. Speaking about Russia he added, “Russia is a continent in itself with all its satellites. It has a huge population, both European and Asian markets".
He also went onto comment on the fact that Qatar got the 2022 World Cup hosting rights, as well as accusations that FIFA made its decisions based on money. FIFA’s president stated,
"If we wanted to make money, we would have gone to the United States and not this country. I understand that it may seem surprising, but we must not forget that they are making efforts and they have already hosted FIFA competitions".
Blatter concluded by saying, "With Qatar, we are opening football to a new world and a new culture. The Arab world has tried several times with Morocco and Egypt for example, to host the World Cup".
The news that the World Cup is headed for regions that it hasn’t been in before is good news for the global football order but nations such as England and U.S.A also feel aggrieved as it has been a long time since these countries hosted the World Cup.
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