Blatter Claims Russia Were Awarded 2018 World Cup Before Votes & Blames Platini for FIFA Crisis

Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that an agreement was in place for Russia to be awarded the 2018 World Cup, even before the votes were cast.

In an interview with Russian news agency Tass, the Swiss appeared to hold nothing back and also launched a scathing attack on suspended UEFA president Michel Platini. 

Blatter blames Michel Platini for the current FIFA crisis by switching his 2022 World Cup vote from the United States to Qatar.

Speaking to Tass, Blatter said: “It was agreed that we go to Russia because it’s never been in Russia, eastern Europe, and for 2022 we go back to America – and so we would have the World Cup in the two biggest political powers.

“Everything was good until the moment when [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy had a meeting with the crown prince of Qatar, who is now the ruler of Qatar [Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani].

“At a lunch afterwards with Mr Platini he said it would be good to go to Qatar. And this has changed everything. There was an election by secret ballot. Four votes from Europe went away from the US and so the result was 14 to eight.

“If you change the four votes, it would have been 12 to 10 for the US. If the USA had been awarded the World Cup, we would . . . not be speaking about any problems at FIFA.”

Looking back Blatter conceded he had been wrong not to stand down as FIFA president after the 2014 World Cup.

He believed that UEFA had long been infected by an “anti-FIFA virus.” He had wanted to stay on to protect the other confederations.

But he had no hesitation in blaming Platini for launching an initial attack on him which subsequently escalated.

“At the beginning,” said Blatter, “it was only a personal attack. It was Platini against me. But then it became political. It was no longer Platini against me but also those who lost the World Cup [vote].

Blatter and Platini are currently serving 90-day suspensions, handed to them by the FIFA Ethics Committee. The new FIFA president will be elected on 26 February. 

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