Qatar should lose World Cup, says outgoing Fifa exco member

Former German FA president wants to ‘rectify this wrong awarding’

Qatar should be stripped of the 2022 World Cup in order to rectify the mistake of awarding them the tournament, the outgoing Fifa executive committee member Theo Zwanziger has said.

Zwanziger, the former president of the Germany football association (DFB), said that could happen, however, only if a report into how the World Cup was awarded offers details of specific wrongdoing.

“The best solution would be not to play in Qatar and to rectify this wrong awarding,” he told the radio station Bayern 2 on Tuesday. “But that can only happen if the report provides sufficient clues that the awarding broke Fifa ethics rules,” he said.

Fifa has been plagued by a wave of scandals and controversy, ranging from allegations of corruption in the joint 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes to a row over $25,000 watches given as gifts to executive committee members at the World Cup in Brazil.

Michael Garcia, the former US attorney for the southern district of New York who investigated the claims and drafted a report, resigned as head of the investigatory chamber of Fifa’s ethics committee in December, saying he felt he was no longer making progress and that football’s governing body “lacked leadership”. His report has not been made public, though a redacted version will be published at an undisclosed date.

“Qatar was not suitable to host such a World Cup for a number of reasons,” Zwanziger, who steps down from Fifa in May, said, citing among other factors the scorching desert temperatures. Fifa is set to move the tournament to winter.

The energy-rich Gulf state has also been criticised over migrants’ working conditions and protection of their human rights as they build the stadiums. “One has to tell candidates [for World Cups[ that sports, football, the clubs and Fifa, they all represent values that we expect to be observed,” said Zwanziger.


Guardian