The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, was questioned by the French judges who are investigating the conditions for the attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
This was revealed by Le Monde in its edition this afternoon, specifying that the interrogation, in which Infantino said among other things that he "absolutely did not expect" a victory for Qatar in the race for organization, on 2 December 2010.
The interrogation took place in Zurich, reveals the French daily, as part of the corruption investigation launched in 2019 by the French financial prosecutor, by investigating judges Marc Sommerer and Virginie Tilmont.
Infantino presented the World Cup that will begin in Doha in a month as "the most beautiful World Cup in history", a tournament "with players in top form and not exhausted after a long season".
In any case, that day in December 2010, not even he expected the designation of the Emirate: "On the morning of the vote - he told the judges - I was impressed by the presentation of Qatar, but from there to get the right to organize the Cup there was a long way in the world ". Infantino, who was Platini's right-hand man at UEFA at the time," swears "- according to Le Monde - that he had no knowledge of corruption related to the attribution of the World Cup to Qatar.
Particularly questioned about the decisive "secret lunch" that took place 10 days before the awarding of the World Cup in the halls of the Elysée, with the then president Nicolas Sarkozy, the Emir of Qatar and Platini - who changed his preference since then of voting, which had previously been for the United States - Infantino says he doesn't know "much".
"I couldn't even tell you - declared the FIFA president - when Platini decided to vote for Qatar, because we didn't talk about it often. In my opinion, from the discussions we had at the beginning, he leaned towards the United States. Then in the end. he decided to vote for Qatar. Whether he decided before or after that lunch, I don't know. Certainly, after that lunch, he was more convinced ".