UAE chief: Qatar will host World Cup alone
Reuters - Thursday 16 December 2010, 10:38
ABU DHABI - Qatar will stage the 2022
World Cup finals alone without seeking help from neighbouring
countries, the president of the United Arab Emirates Football
Association Mohamed Khalfan al-Rumaithi said on Thursday.
"Nobody came out from Qatar and said 'would you do that?'
We are happy for Qatar, they delivered the goods. I think they
will go solo," al-Rumaithi told Reuters.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said recently that Qatar, a
minor football nation who were awarded the 2022 finals earlier
this month, might farm out some matches to other countries in
the Gulf.
Speaking at a news conference at the Club World Cup,
al-Rumaithi had minutes earlier said: "We have not been
approached.
"Qatar won a fair competition and today I read in the news
that Mr Blatter said only the Qataris can decide if they want
the region to participate in this.
"We know that at that moment when Mr Blatter opened the
envelope ( during the Zurich vote) it was only Qatar.
"They are our neighbours, they are our brothers... Let's
believe in Qatar."
There have also been suggestions that the finals could be
moved from the traditional mid-year period to January because
of the intense summer heat in Qatar.
FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said the idea raised
by Germany great Franz Beckenbauer of a winter World Cup in
Qatar would have to be raised to executive committee level.
"For now that's not the case," Valcke said. "It's too
early to talk about a change to what is part of the Qatari bid
which was the one on which the executive commitee members made
their decision."
Blatter was to have attended the news conference but went
instead to an official 2022 World Cup presentation in Doha.
He will be giving a news cnference in Abu Dhabi on Friday,
eve of the Club World Cup final between European champions
Inter Milan and Africa's TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic
of Congo.