Former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter says that he doesn't believe there will be another FIFA World Cup on African soil in his lifetime.
Blatter made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Robert Marawa on his newly launched show on 947 in a wide-ranging interview that touched on topics such as current FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup, and the Netflix documentary "FIFA Uncovered".
Blatter was president of the global football body from 1998 to 2015 and was in charge of the organisation when South Africa was announced as the host of the tournament in 2010.
He has much praise for the 2010 South African World Cup.
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.
Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
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.
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Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
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. To give another world cup there would be nice.
Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
The 86-year-old added that Infantino is "destroying his legacy" and "has no respect for Blatter and the organisation".
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
Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
In a startling interview, Blatter also accused the current administration of "sponsoring" the Netflix documentary "FIFA Uncovered" which sought to explore the orgainsations checkered history and allegations of corruption.
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.
Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
He had no further comment on the documentary except to say they will come back with the truth.
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.
Sepp Blatter, Former President - FIFA
He notes that this is not good for football and it is important to tell the truth.
