Why Qatar?
Why go play in a country that is so hot
or in a country that's going to need to build stadiums?
Why such a small country
with a team that is ranked so low globally?
If you asked questions about the working conditions,
human rights, whether European fans will be able to get there, and so on…
So I was shocked, like everyone else.
As I was going in to vote for Qatar,
Blatter comes up to me.
"I want you to vote for the USA and not Qatar."
Do you think it's appropriate for the president to stoop to that level?
I didn't respond. He went off.
I got the votes for Qatar, and Qatar won.
During our stay in Doha,
we quickly noticed this was a government project,
channeled through the World Cup,
to put Qatar at the center of the world.
It was a project of state.
It wasn't a project of the football federation.
Honestly, I never thought Qatar would win.
They don't have a football tradition.
In the report, they didn't have the best marks.
They had to virtually rebuild the city,
build all the stadiums.
They didn't have a single stadium which could host a match.
And build hotels for tourists and for the teams as well.
But the insurmountable obstacle was how to play in May, June, July.
We did our reports.
These were sent out.
Any member of the ExCo could call me and ask me to explain anything.
No one called me.
That's how I reached the conclusion that not all of them had read it.
If they didn't care that you couldn't play in May, June, July,
why would they care about working conditions?
It wasn't an issue.
The Emir of Qatar came to Brazil.
He stayed for a while and even visited President Lula,
who was also in favor of Qatar.
We held a lunch here in Rio de Janeiro.
Present at the lunch was the Emir of Qatar, Dr. Havelange, myself.
There were eight or nine of us.
That was when we decided we would support Qatar.
I have received favors, exchanged favors. That's normal.
But I have never been bribed to do anything in my life.
He was surprised to see that a whole Qatari delegation was there,
and Platini was not forewarned.
So his version was that he received a "subliminal message,"
these are his words,
from Sarkozy, telling him it would be better if he voted for Qatar
rather than the USA, for the best interests of France.
Platini fell into a trap set by Sarkozy.
Sarkozy used Platini to say to the Qataris,
"Look, I have Platini in my pocket."
"France will vote for you, for the World Cup,"
which was huge for the Qataris.
Okay, I'll tell you how it happened.
As I understood it, France would be happy if I voted for Qatar.
I understood that, but no one ever asked me anything.
Nicolas Sarkozy never asked you to vote for Qatar?
No. Maybe that's why he sold my vote to Qatar.
Maybe he knew I would vote for Qatar.
And so he sold my vote, for the sake of France, to Qatar,
in order to obtain many things.
I obviously knew about Jack Warner.
Jack Warner, as the confederation president,
he offered an opportunity to Bin Hammam.
And we obviously went there to listen to what he had to offer.
On the first day, Bin Hammam did his presentation.
And something strange happened after Bin Hammam spoke.
We were told about a gift to help the federations.
They invited us to a place to pick up the gift.
I waited my turn, and I went into the room,
and there were some officials from the CFU.
They handed me an envelope marked "Puerto Rico."
And when I opened the envelope, there was money in cash.
The sum of $40,000 in cash.
I immediately said, "What's this for?"
"This is for you to use for whatever you want within football."
They obviously gave that sum of money to everyone.
Had I been told,
"This is in exchange for a vote," I would have said, "I won't take it!"
In fact, I returned the money.
I'm being blamed for this storm. Well, then, fine.
I'll take responsibility.