Speaking to 947’s Robert Marawa, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter says the African continent will never host another tournament in his lifetime.
Blatter blasted European countries that mostly colonised Africa, saying that football should be for everyone.
The Swiss former football administrator also said the current FIFA executive is mainly focusing on Asia and the Middle East and that is purely because of money.
Blatter was president of the global football governing body from 1998 to 2015 and he was in charge of the organisation when South Africa was announced as the host of the tournament in 2010.
In the interview, the 86-year-old praised Mzansi for the 2010 South African World Cup where Spain emerged as victors by defeating the Netherlands at FNB Stadium.
“Africa and South Africa organised the best-ever world cup because it was done with a big heart and everyone was happy. Unfortunately, there won’t be another world cup in Africa in my life,” he said.
“The shift is towards Asian and Middle Eastern countries he notes and adds that it is about the money.
“With 48 teams in the world, you need more than one country to organise a world cup, which is totally wrong. The movements taking place in football are towards Asia and Arabic countries because there is a lot of money but football should be for everyone, he emphasises.
“Europe must never forget what they did to Africa with the colonies. So, it’s time to pay something back and give another world cup there would be nice.”
Speaking about his successor, Gianni Infantino, Blatter didn’t mince his words in saying that the Italian is messing up with his legacy.
He also alleged that the current administration of “sponsoring” the Netflix documentary “FIFA Uncovered” which sought to explore the organisations’ history and allegations of corruption.
“What we have created in the last 30 or 40 years is wonderful and he wants to get rid of it because he wants to get rid of any trace of me in the organisation,” he added.
“This is the wrong representation of FIFA and was sponsored by FIFA itself and was there to destroy what we had done in the past. They gave them all the documents and videos and people to speak to and that FIFA was corrupt with me being corrupt as well.
“We are working on something in response in terms of a documentary to say exactly what happened in the past and what can happen in the future. There will possibly be a first announcement in March before the next conference.”
Main Image: Siphiwe Tshabalala/Twitter
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