Blatter quizzed over Qatar 2022 World Cup vote

PARIS AFP Nov 26, 202: Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been interviewed by French anti-corruption police investigating the controversial vote to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Blatter, 85, was summoned to appear as a “witness” on Thursday and Friday, French police said, confirming a report in Le Monde newspaper.

The inquiry is being led by France's OCLCIFF anti-corruption unit. Part of its focus surrounds a November 23, 2009 dinner, nine days before the vote, at the Elysees Palace hosted by then French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sitting round the table that night were Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who became emir of Qatar on his father Sheikh Hamad's abdication in 2013, Qatar's then prime minister Hamad bin Jassim al Thani, and Michel Platini, then head of UEFA.

Platini is suspected of having voted for Qatar at the request of Sarkozy, an allegation he denies.

The former French football great's vote helped determine the result of 14 votes for Qatar against eight for the USA on December 2 in Zurich. Platini was questioned by French police over the affair in 2019 without being charged.