FIFA Has Made Historic Decisions In Terms Of Sport And Geopolitics - Sepp Blatter

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has defended the decision to award Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 World Cups by claiming that it's only natural to keep on moving into new regions.

"We have made historic decisions in terms of sport and geopolitics. We’ve sent the World Cup to new territories. The 2018 World Cup will go to eastern Europe and the vast country that is Russia, and the 2022 event will go to Qatar, in the Arab world. The World Cup will discover new cultures in new regions, and that’s something I’m delighted about," said Blatter to fifa.com.

"You need to follow the development of football and FIFA to understand these decisions. It’s not something that started yesterday either. My predecessor Joao Havelange said that football had to become a universal sport. There was a need to promote football and look for sponsors because we didn’t have a cent back then.

"When I jumped into this project in November 1974 I did so with my feet tied together, and I could see straightaway that there was more to football than just kicking a ball. When I became the FIFA President, the decision was made to go into Asia. And then I said we had to go to Africa, which is what we did. It’s only natural, then, that we should keep on moving into new regions."