England reacted like “bad losers” after failing to win WC bid: Blatter
By ANIThursday, December 9, 2010
LONDON - Rejecting allegations of corruption at soccer’s governing body, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said that England reacted like “bad losers” after failing to win the bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Russia and Qatar won the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups
“To be honest, I was surprised by all the English complaining after the defeat. England, of all people, the motherland of fairplay ideas,” Blatter told Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche.
“Now some of them are showing themselves to be bad losers. You can’t come afterwards and say so and so promised to vote for England. The results are known. The outcome came out clearly,” he said.
England’s bid chief Andy Anson has suggested Blatter influenced committee members before the vote, The Guardian reports
Blatter said the reaction of the losing bidders showed some did not understand his drive to expand soccer’s frontiers.
“I really sense in some reactions a bit of the arrogance of the western world of Christian background. Some simply can’t bear it if others get a chance for a change,” he said.
“What can be wrong if we start football in regions where this sport demonstrates a potential which goes far beyond sport?” Blatter added.
Blatter rejected the corruption allegations and said he was being targeted by anti-FIFA journalists: “There is no systematic corruption in FIFA. That is nonsense. We are financially clean and clear.” (ANI)
