By SBI SOCCER
The U.S. lost out on a chance to host the World Cup in 2022 to Qatar, and one of those who voted for the Middle Eastern country was reportedly on the verge of pledging an American vote before meeting with Qatari officials.
That man is current president of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and possible FIFA president Michel Platini.
Platini, who is a strong candidate to become the next FIFA president after Sepp Blatter steps away in February, said he “might have told” U.S. officials that he would vote for them to host the World Cup. However, after a meeting with now former France President Nicolas Sarkozy and senior Qatari officials in 2010, he changed his mind and voted for Qatar.
“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” Platini told AP Thursday.
With the FIFA presidential election campaign in full swing, Platini said he hopes to to remove politics from FIFA, as the organization has been the focus of a corruption scandal since the U.S. Department of Justice started heavily investigating it in May.
“We have to care about the game, not politics,” Platini said. “With me, there won’t be politics. With me, it’s about football, not politics.”
What do you think of this development? Why do you think Platini changed his mind?
Share your thoughts below.
It is obvious, this corruption is and had been a product of government institutions. Governments in the western world are a Mafia by themselves. They conduct their activities in a manner that if done by non governmental organisation would have been deem international crime. French government used its machinery to cause the change of mind of Platini. His change of mind was not based on football considerations only. It is obvious, it was on the basis of not only what Platini may have received personally but the benefits that accrues to France and its giant cartel of companies. This is corruption in the governmental level . This is the same practice employed by all leading Western governments in their dealings with other organisations and smaller governments. Now they are acting as ostriches, throwing the first stone. This is purely what capitalism does, the international order of dealings must change. Capitalism has created greed. I am not against people ripping the benefits of their efforts, that must remain. But we must recognise a man is only rich for as long as another man in society is poor.
I love how the sarcasm in Nate Dollars’ original comment flew right over everyone’s heads.
Only one symbol needed to answer this question: $
In other news, area man sees wisdom of paying mafia protection money after meeting with mafia henchmen.
I have to agree with slowleftarm here. Platini says it’s about the sport but he made a horrible football decision going with quatar. quatar makes no sense at all from a pure sporting and fan experience perspective.
If you take him at his word and he was trying to do what is good for football, you have to question his ability to make a rational decision.
USA – Stadia largely in place Qatar – only promised facilities with Air Conditioning
US – Infrastructure to host millions of visitors Qatar – Infrastructure for the wealthy, else nada
US – Safety of players and officials excellent Qatar – playing in 120° heat
US – Ease of travel mostly air and costs $ Qatar – almost entirely air and more $
but the real kicker
US – only small bribes (probably) Qatar – Much more lavish bribes promised (very likely)
Platini met with Mohamed Bin Hammam who’s now banned for life from world football for bribery and corruption. I also recall reading in several places that Sarkozy (French president at the time) pressured Platini to vote for Qatar because Qatar promised France they’d buy a bunch of airliners from Airbus, they’d buy/bailout PSG (now owned by Qataris), work some deal with Qatar owned beIN Sports for Ligue 1 TV rights, and award substantial contracts to French construction firms in building the WC infrastructure in Qatar. All this as a payback for their vote and lobbying on their behalf.
No surprise – there’s no way a majority of the people voting could legitimately think Qatar was a better host than any of the other candidates. We’ve all know the fix was in from the moment this decision was announced.
This has been known for a long time. The meeting was held between government officials and oil companies executives, or like we like to call that around here, Congress.
Thanks for the typical anti-US comment. Knew it was coming.
I grew up in France in the 70s and 80s, so I am a huge Platini fan. He got us to the WC semi- finals twice! But I’m guessing he got his hands dirty during his time at FIFA. I really wish he would not run for President; it’s almost inevitable that some misdeeds will be exposed and ruin my childhood memories. And nobody wants that…
Speak for yourself.
everyone automatically assumes corruption. the point of the meeting was to convince him to change his mind. maybe qatar actually convinced him? i know its FIFA so it’s easy to assume corruption, but is it really that far-fetched?
exactly. my comment above was sarcasm. would i be suprised if platini’s vote was corrupt? hell no. but this report isn’t even news; i mean, i would hope platini met with qatari officials before casting his vote.
Actually no. No such meetings (other than the official presentation) should be permitted.
why not just give the decision makers a “shot clock” in which they need to make a decision? why would they have time to think about it and discuss with others? oh wait, discussion with others constitutes corruption…i forgot…
Love this idea. They could borrow Vatican City for the meeting and we all wait for the white smoke from the EXCO while sequestered inside until they give a decision. No lobbyists, no government officials, stay in there as long as necessary to get a winner.
that’s an admirable idea, and not very practical. the official presentation is a circus. there are obviously going to be details and individual concerns that would need to be addressed later.
They don’t have to be “addressed later” in smoke filled rooms with politicians present. Just because that has been the norm for as long as there have been Olympic games and world cups does not mean it has to be done this way. He should be making a decision based on the overall good of the game, not addressing his “individual concerns” (wink, wink) behind closed doors.
obviously there is a right and a wrong way to do it. as i said earlier, i’m assuming that platini’s vote was corrupt. however, the fact that he met with qataris *gasp* before voting is not the smoking gun that some would like it to be.
Given what we have already learned about FIFA, you could also say that it’s possible that little pigs will learn to fly.
Except the Qatar bid was outrageously inappropriate … so much so, we now have to disrupt the European domestic season because the Qatar climate is completely unsuitable.
Platini is no different from other people who have caved in to vote for a place where the World Cup should not be played. It’s too hot there. The only reason this becomes apparent is because the USA lost out and is showing that it only cares when it loses. The US investigation was probably started because they lost their bid for the ’22 World Cup. Would there have been an investigation if the the US bid had been successful? Probably not. Would there have been similar corruption as is now being investigated? Probably yes.
The investigation was started because the US won the Copa America bid due to some shady goings on happening on US soil involving Traffic Sports and others.
It started way before that. FBI were tracking Chuck Blazer a few World Cups ago.
Exactly. Which also rejects the original poster’s hypothesis that this FIFA upheaval is due to the US government acting like a spoiled child simply because the US Soccer Federation lost a World Cup Bid.
I thought the FBI stumbled into discovering the FIFA corruption when they were investigating Russian organized crime
Meet the new boss….just as same as the old boss!
Right? Exactly. Anyone who claims it won’t be about politics is just planning to use politics to fool you. Everything is political whether you like it or not.
But from now on… he promises it’ll only be about football. Not politics. Or money.
Imagine… If FIFA hadn’t voted to give it to Qatar, they might not have ever been called out for all this BS.
QR or ر.ق
Remember that Arabic reads right to left. You essentially typed QR or RQ…
Funny how when it comes to national federations, interference from the government can get the federation suspended by FIFA, but when it comes to infuence-peddling to FIFA itself, governments are welcomed with open arms.
yeah, sounds a little fishy: platini attends a meeting where likely the only point of business is to try to convince him to vote for qatar, and he leaves convinced? shenanigans, obvs. WHAT KIND OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN
FIFA’s World…and there is nothing we can do about it because we love this game to much to turn our back on it. Sucks but that is the world we are living in!!!
What kind of world are we living in? Um, where have you been. Right here in this country you have billionaires giving tens of millions to candidates. One gave $100 million to one candidate running for nomination in 2012. You think that is done for purely altruistic reasons?
Why did he change his mind? Almost always the right answer is the most obvious one — he got an offer he couldn’t refuse.
I thought it was the French government that was trying to protect French business interests in Qatar. I believe I read that somewhere which if true, how can Platini say he would have no politics in FIFA? This is the same guy that at one time wanted to outlaw tackling.
Disgraceful. Financial fair play? He’s having a laugh.