Platini wants other Gulf nations to joint Qatar in hosting 2022 WC
By ANIThursday, January 13, 2011
LONDON - UEFA boss Michel Platini has asked the 2022 World Cup, which will be hosted in Qatar, to be expanded to include other Gulf nations.
Platini is widely assumed to have voted for Qatar that swept to victory at last month’s vote, even though it has no football pedigree.
Within days of the ballot, several of football’s most influential voices - not least FIFA president Sepp Blatter - were calling for the tournament to be held in winter, thus changing the goalposts, The Daily Express reports.
Platini is now suggesting it could take in the entire Gulf region, another element that wasn’t mentioned in Qatar’s original presentation.
“I hope it will be a World Cup of the Gulf. It could be the World Cup of Qatar but played in the Gulf. We need political people [for this to happen], but I hope so,” he said.
Platini’s latest remarks will infuriate those who allege Qatar’s victory was the result of collusion and deal-making, but he said: “In 12 years everybody will be happy to have a very well-organised World Cup and not remember what’s happened before. When I organised the World Cup in France we did differently from what we proposed in the bid.” (ANI)
