Awarding World Cup to Qatar was blatant mistake: Zwanziger

Awarding the 2022 football World Cup to Qatar’s desert state was a ‘blatant mistake’ FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said on Wednesday, adding that staging the tournament in winter would be just as big a problem.

German Zwanziger’s attack on the decision to give the tiny energy-rich Gulf state the world’s biggest single sports event comes after FIFA president Sepp Blatter repeated his view that the finals could not be played in the traditional summer slot.

‘It was a blatant mistake,’ Zwanziger, formerly head of the German football federation (DfB) said, referring to the decision taken by world soccer’s governing body in December 2010. Zwanziger, who joined the FIFA executive the following year, also said shifting the tournament to the winter months would put the unity of German football in danger.

‘Changing the World Cup to the winter is going deep into the structures of European national federations and also amateur football in Germany.’ ‘A change in playing schedules does not only affect the Bundesliga but continues affecting lower divisions,’ added he.