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World Cup 2022: Time for Fifa to fix their Qatar mistake

Blatter finally admits choosing ‘super-hot’ country was wrong, write KADEEM SIMMONDS

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has finally admitted that it was “a mistake” to choose Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup but was quick to reiterate that the mistake was the summer heat and not the terrible conditions of migrant workers.

Despite technical reports, weather reports and the rest of the world telling Fifa that Qatar is too hot to stage a World Cup in the summer, Fifa went ahead and voted for the Middle Eastern country.

Since then over 1,000 workers have died but to the bigwigs at Fifa that is not the problem. The problem is the obvious weather conditions.

To counter that, it now seems likely that the tournament will be moved to the winter to avoid the heat which alone will raise problems for the European leagues due to scheduling clashes.

Blatter tried to downplay the mistake, saying everyone makes mistakes in their life.

But people have died due to this mistake and unless something is done about workers’ rights, many more will.

Blatter said: “Yes, it was a mistake of course but one makes lots of mistakes in life.

“The technical report into Qatar said clearly it was too hot but the executive committee — with a large majority — decided all the same to play it in Qatar.”

Blatter insisted however that Qatar had not “bought” the World Cup — but the bid did spend large amounts of money on sponsorship and development programmes.

He added: “No, I have never said it was bought but that it was due to political considerations.”

Due to the global outrage over the deaths of workers in Qatar, Fifa issued a statement insisting Blatter had not questioned Qatar as hosts.

It read: “The president reiterated that the decision to organise the World Cup in summer was an ‘error’ based on the technical assessment report of the bid, which had highlighted the extremely hot temperatures in summer in Qatar.

“At no stage did he question Qatar as the host of the 2022 Fifa World Cup.”

But International Trade Union Confederation general secretary Sharan Burrow feels that Fifa have the power to make the change but only if they sort out the problem staring them dead in the face.

She said: “Fifa must make worker’s rights a condition of Qatar hosting the World Cup.

“Fifa has the power to bring real change in Qatar, for the lives of 1.4 million migrant workers and their families back home.

“They need to use that power and not walk away from the problem.”

And the fact that Fifa had to make clear what was said shows that they know the heat is not the real problem.

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