Blatter: Qatar to be Sole Host of 2022 World Cup

FIFA President Sepp Blatter backtracked on comments made last Friday in which he seemed to suggest that co-hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was a possibility.”The decision of FIFA is to play in one country and that will be in Qatar,” Blatter told a press conference after meeting with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamadal-Thani.

However, during a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Friday Blatter had said therewas “a big question mark” over whether to bring in another country like Iran or the United Arab Emirates or to even open the tournament up to the entire Gulf region to help Qatar.

“I was just touring a little bit here, I was in Iran and I was in United Arab Emirates and it came up, the question came up, ‘Can we share the World Cup with Qatar?’ I just took the questions, butI did not answer,” Blatter insisted. “I just want to tell you that when we took the decision for the World Cup 2002 when we played in two countries with difficulties, it was (South) Korea and Japan.We have decided to never go in two countries, even less so to three, if one country is able to do so (stage the tournament).”