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After Russia, place in Qatar in 2022. At the Olympic Games, the representative of the next host city receives the flame from the hands of the organizer who draws the curtain. In football, no ceremony of this type. But all eyes are already turning to those to whom the witness of the World Cup has passed.
" I can say with conviction: this is the best World Cup of all time ", Said Friday in Moscow the President of Fifa about the competition that ends. Gianni Infantino may find it difficult to say the same thing in 2022. The World Cup organized in Qatar is a controversial subject, in the world of football and elsewhere.
Lunch at the Elysee
The conditions of its award on 2 December 2010 in Zurich regularly blacken the pages of newspapers, not just in the sports section. Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa at the time, has since been swept away by several corruption cases. His UEFA counterpart, Frenchman Michel Platini, was excluded on the grounds of the allegedly illegitimate payment of 2 million Swiss francs, before being cleared by the Swiss courts. His defense was made difficult by the fact that many observers lent him a decisive role in voting for Qatar. In the line of fire, the famous lunch of 23 November 2010 organized at the Elysée by Nicolas Sarkozy around the crown prince of the emirate.
"Mediapart" also revealed that a joint investigation by the FBI and Brazilian justice suspected a Qatari construction conglomerate of having paid $ 22 million to a former president of the Brazilian Football Federation for support
A "bad decision"
The other candidate countries for the World Cup 2022 were Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. The choice of a small emirate planted in the desert in a scorched climate, sparsely populated and without a tradition of football surprised. Barack Obama spoke of a " bad decision ". The English press went wild. "Qatargate" hit the headlines
Fifa asked Michael J. Garcia, a former US federal prosecutor, for an investigation. To his dismay, the judging chamber of the Fifa ethics commission will report in his report " questionable behavior " but will not question the attribution process.
32 or 48 participants?
The controversy also concerns the construction of the new stadiums. At the end of 2013, the International Trade Union Confederation figures up to 4,000 the number of workers from the Indian subcontinent who could die during high-speed work. Among the builders, Vinci is accused. The investigation will clear the French group.
The climate also feeds the controversy. How to play in the middle of summer in the middle of the desert? We talk about air-conditioned stadiums. Eventually, Fifa will change the dates. The World Cup in Qatar will be held from November 21 to December 18, 2022, at the end of autumn. An agenda imposed on UEFA and the major professional European championships that usually take place at that time. The big clubs will have to be compensated, and the negotiations are going to be tough.
The subject is not closed, as it is not the one of the number of participating countries. Fifa decided to move to 48 teams from 2026. But the South American federations are demanding this change by 2022. Gianni Infantino is not against, if the Qataris accept and build more stadiums …
Rest the unknown of the spectators: Qatar wants to bring over a million visitors. A challenge for this country with 2.5 million inhabitants …
Philippe Bertrand
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