FIFA announced yesterday that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will indeed take place during winter time - with a final on December 18, but that's far from the end of the controversial matter according to one expert on football's world governing body.
It’s a move that will make many of Europe’s biggest clubs - and major television broadcasters - very unhappy. However, investigative reporter Andrew Jennings told Newstalk's Breakfast this morning that FIFA boss Sepp Blatter knows this and is just appeasing Gulf voters ahead of his organisation's upcoming presidential elections.
Qatar 2022 World Cup final will be played on December 18th. Blatter will still be president of FIFA and present the trophy dressed as Santa.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 19, 2015
"What I think is going to happen is that the English Premier League - love it or hate it - which is the most valuable, wealthy, some would say arrogant, part of world football - isn't going to just shut down," said Jennings, author of Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family.
"Is anybody seriously thinking that all football in England is going to close down because the dirty old men took the outrageous decision.
"The big clubs in England and some in Europe, that are the property of oligarchs, Gulf millionaires, and so on - most of them are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Closing for seven weeks, but having to keep the payroll going ... you can't close down an industry like that.
"Blatter doesn't want to say it at the moment because he wants the Gulf votes in the upcoming [FIFA presidential election]."
FIFA have confirmed that the 2022 Qatar World Cup Final will be held on the 18th of December. pic.twitter.com/E2eWQ5MmMA
— Real Football Family (@FootballFamilia) March 20, 2015
Jennings, as the title of his book would suggest, has little regard for the 79-year-old Swiss and his colleagues. "I think we ought to wind the clock back a bit," said Jennings. "Let's go back to 2010 when the London Sunday Times started a tsunami of corruption - not allegations - facts about FIFA.
"What came out of that [is] you can't say [2018 World Cup hosts] Russia paid bribes, or Qatar paid bribes. What we can say is that the 22-man group at the top of FIFA traditionally asks for bribes."
"We're talking about these 22, many of them dubious old men who took that decision," he continued. "Seven or eight of them have had to go since then - not on allegations, but on corruption facts. So FIFA has little or no credibility."
Listen to the interview here:
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