Fifa president Sepp Blatter claims allegations
surrounding the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid are
motivated by racism.
Qatar was chosen as host in December 2010 but
corruption claims have prompted Fifa to begin an
inquiry.
"There is a sort of storm against Fifa relating to the
Qatar World Cup," Blatter said.
"Sadly there's a great
deal of discrimination and racism."
Fifa will rule on the validity of the bidding for the 2018
and 2022 World Cups in September or October.
At that point, the 78-year-old president of football's
world governing body said the "matter will be closed".
Blatter confirmed the latest allegations would be
discussed at the Fifa Congress on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
He said Fifa needed to combat "anything that smacks of
discrimination and racism", adding the repeated attacks
make him "sad".
Qatar overcame competition from Australia, Japan,
South Korea and the United States to be named as 2022
hosts.
But the bidding process has been hit by a series of
corruption claims.
Lawyer Michael Garcia is leading an independent
investigation into the bidding process and is due to
deliver his report to Fifa in mid-July.
Blatter told delegates from the Asian Football
Conference that Garcia would also speak at Fifa's
congress to update delegates on his inquiry.
Garcia is investigating everyone connected with the
bidding process for both the 2018 World Cup, to be
staged in Russia, and the 2022 event.
Qatar's World Cup organising committee continues to
reject claims of wrongdoing and says it is confident the
vote was won fairly.
Meanwhile, Africa's football chiefs have attacked the
media - "notably British" - for what it called "repeated,
deliberately hateful, defamatory and degrading attacks"
on the integrity of the Confederation of African Football
(Caf) "and the entire African continent".
In a resolution posted on its website, Caf hit out at
reports placing the region's soccer administrators at the
centre of allegations of bribery to secure the 2022
World Cup for Qatar.
CAF added that it would urge the executive committee
"to file a law suit, if necessary, so that the authors of
this smearing and defamatory campaign against African
football leaders are brought to book".
SOURCE - BBC SPORT
surrounding the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid are
motivated by racism.
Qatar was chosen as host in December 2010 but
corruption claims have prompted Fifa to begin an
inquiry.
"There is a sort of storm against Fifa relating to the
Qatar World Cup," Blatter said.
"Sadly there's a great
deal of discrimination and racism."
Fifa will rule on the validity of the bidding for the 2018
and 2022 World Cups in September or October.
At that point, the 78-year-old president of football's
world governing body said the "matter will be closed".
Blatter confirmed the latest allegations would be
discussed at the Fifa Congress on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
He said Fifa needed to combat "anything that smacks of
discrimination and racism", adding the repeated attacks
make him "sad".
Qatar overcame competition from Australia, Japan,
South Korea and the United States to be named as 2022
hosts.
But the bidding process has been hit by a series of
corruption claims.
Lawyer Michael Garcia is leading an independent
investigation into the bidding process and is due to
deliver his report to Fifa in mid-July.
Blatter told delegates from the Asian Football
Conference that Garcia would also speak at Fifa's
congress to update delegates on his inquiry.
Garcia is investigating everyone connected with the
bidding process for both the 2018 World Cup, to be
staged in Russia, and the 2022 event.
Qatar's World Cup organising committee continues to
reject claims of wrongdoing and says it is confident the
vote was won fairly.
Meanwhile, Africa's football chiefs have attacked the
media - "notably British" - for what it called "repeated,
deliberately hateful, defamatory and degrading attacks"
on the integrity of the Confederation of African Football
(Caf) "and the entire African continent".
In a resolution posted on its website, Caf hit out at
reports placing the region's soccer administrators at the
centre of allegations of bribery to secure the 2022
World Cup for Qatar.
CAF added that it would urge the executive committee
"to file a law suit, if necessary, so that the authors of
this smearing and defamatory campaign against African
football leaders are brought to book".
SOURCE - BBC SPORT
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