Blatter: Agreement to give Russia 2018 World Cup before vote took place

Sepp Blatter says there was an agreement for the 2018 World Cup to go to Russia - even before the vote took place. The suspended FIFA President revealed the tournament was always lined up to go to Moscow, with the 2022 World Cup to be held in the US - until Michel Platini decided to back Qatar. He did not reveal who had “agreed” for Russia to be hosts, but said the FIFA crisis was triggered by England and the USA being “bad losers” following their World Cup bid failures.

If you put the four votes, it would have been 12 to 10. If the USA was given the World Cup, we would only speak about the wonderful World Cup 2018 in Russia and we would not speak about any problems at FIFA.

Sepp Blatter

Mr Blatter said: “Everything was good until the moment when (French president Nicolas) Sarkozy came in a meeting with the crown prince of Qatar, who is now the ruler of Qatar. And at a lunch afterwards with Mr Platini he said it would be good to go to Qatar. And this has changed all pattern." He added: "There was an election by secret ballot. Four votes from Europe went away from the USA and so the result was 14 to eight." He said there was no possibility the World Cup would be taken away from Russia. "No, you will never lose the World Cup. It has been anchored in FIFA. There will be no change in the World Cup,” he said.

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