Blatter’s memoir highlights ‘deal’ to secure World Cup for Qatar

In his memoir, titled My Truth, the former boss of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has revealed how Nicolas Sarkozy intervened in favor of Qatar to secure World Cup 2022 for the country.

In an interview with TSR, Blatter specifies the scenario that led him to the controversial allocation of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, highlighting the determining role of Nicolas Sarkozy, then French president, in December 2010.

According to him, the United States had to be awarded the World Cup. However, a direct political intervention changed the course of things. “Nicolas Sarkozy told Michel Platini: You should vote for Qatar, you and your henchmen,” he says.

According to Blatter, the intervention provoked a chain of reactions until the scandal that led to the intervention of the American justice system.

‘Beginning of trouble’

Sarkozy’s recommendation was also the “beginning of my troubles,” says Blatter, who led FIFA from 1998 to 2015.

According to him, any financial contracts signed thereafter do not concern FIFA. In his book, Blatter details how France would have benefited by supporting Qatar.

He confirms that a “deal” did take place but refutes the idea that a World Cup can be formally “bought”.

Blatter, however, he recognizes the role of Qatar’s money in financing an event of the African Football Confederation (CAF). He added that it is has been said that Qatar allocated $2 million to finance a meeting for the CAF.

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