UEFA president Michel Platini has responded sarcastically to claims made by Sepp Blatter that European members voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup because of pressure from political leaders.
The FIFA president's comments were seen as a dig at Platini, who is the only FIFA member to have revealed that he voted for Qatar.
Platini said: "With the extraordinary influence Mr Blatter has, he has only all of a sudden realised there are political and economic influences when we decide who will host an Olympic Games and so forth? It's better late than never I guess.
"It's new, apparently. It was said that Europeans voted for Qatar but Qatar got 14 votes. We're only eight. If you subtract eight from 14, you get six left over."
Platini went on to dismiss suggestions that his decision to vote for the Western Asian Arab state was influenced by a lunch he had with the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the current Emir of Qatar.
Written by
Robert Summerscales
Robert Summerscales
