Man United are the new Premiership favourites after Chelsea slip up again, this time against Everton
Michel Platini has praised the decision to award the World Cup to both Russia and Qatar.
Russia won the vote to host the 2018 finals, but it was the decision to award the 2022 finals to Qatar that attracted the most controversy.
But Platini insists there is “nothing illogical” about this decision, noting that Middle Eastern countries had been rejected several times in the past.
Platini felt this may have key to the FIFA executive committee awarding the games to Qatar, as they seek to take the game to new frontiers.
“Russia asked why they didn’t have the right to organise the World Cup and said it had already been held 10 times in Western Europe,” he said.
“I think maybe the executive committee were sensitive to this.
“The same thing applies to Qatar and the Arab world. Morocco has applied to host the World Cup four times and lost, Egypt have also failed and Qatar asked when will the Middle East have this opportunity?
“Maybe, the members of the executive committee thought it was a good opportunity to go to that part of the world once and for all, a region that has never hosted the World Cup.
“So if we’re talking about developing football worldwide, which is the ultimately the goal of institutions such as FIFA or if we’re talking about European football, which is the goal of UEFA, well it’s something beautiful.
“That doesn’t mean that Uefa has different objectives, we voted for Poland and Ukraine (as Euro 2012 hosts).”
He added: “We opened new frontiers by taking the World Cup to Africa and maybe the executive committee felt it was time to open more frontiers. There was nothing illogical about this.”
The former France midfielder also dismissed claims that the heat in Qatar would be a problem, citing the tournament in the United States as an example.
“In the 1994 World Cup in the United States, the temperature in Dallas, if I’m not mistaken was 45 Celsius and nobody criticised us at the time,” he added.
“It’s a long time and we’re talking about this with (FIFA president Sepp) Mr Blatter.”
Platini has even hinted that in order to combat the problems of the heat in Qatar, the World Cup could be moved to January.
“I agree, football in the Gulf in January that would be easier than June, why not, it’s possible,” he said.
“However, many things would have to be changed in the calendar, what would we do to reorganise ourselves and how much rest would be given to the players?
“Would we have February off and re-start the season in March?”
Man United are the new Premiership favourites after Chelsea slip up again, this time against Everton
