Hassan Al Thawadi, head of the Qatar 2022 Supreme
Committee, spoke to talkSPORT refuting a report that Qatar bought the 2022
World Cup.
The report, compiled by the Daily Telegraph, showed
Mohammed bin Hammam, Qatars most senior football official, gave FIFA vice
president Jack Warner $2 million after the vote was completed.
Mohammed bin Hamman was banned for life from FIFA in 2011
for bribery.
“We did not buy the World Cup. It’s as simple as that,”
Al Thawadi told talkSPORT.
“I go back to a lot of people that look at us and say
it’s shocking that we won and I go back to the simple thing – why we won. It’s
because we worked hard, harder than a lot of people.”
Al Thawadi added that Qatar’s location and size were
actually beneficial to the country’s bid despite criticisms.
“When we first started we said, ‘Okay, we want to host
the World Cup. What’s stopping us?’”
“What we’re saying is, ‘it’s a compact World Cup.' You’re
based in one place in one accommodation. You get to explore. You get to watch
more than one game a day.”
German development minister Gerd Müller spoke out against
FIFA over Qatar hosting the World Cup and Brazil’s failed commitments, the
first member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet to so do.
Müller said that FIFA awarding the World Cup to Qatar was
a “misjudgment” and that the stadiums for the country were being built by
“slave labor.”
Another issue Müller slammed FIFA on was its failed
commitment to sustainability in Brazil and Qatar.
"There a stadium has been built in the middle of a
tropical rainforest, without clarifying [the issue] of sustainability. That is
irresponsible," Müller said of the Manaus facility.
He added that building stadiums in the middle of the
desert “contradicts” global climate change efforts.
“What is that as a signal for worldwide climate
protection if stadiums are built in the middle of the desert which then have to
be acclimatized with high energy expenditure?”
According to Müller, the billions spent on the World Cup
should have been allocated to “social projects.”
"It is no longer up-to-date to run a football World
Cup elevated over [the needs of] people and to ignore social and ecological
standards."
Culled from Worldfootballinsider
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