PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Russia, Qatar are good choices for FIFA World Cup, says Roger Milla
Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - Cameroonian football legend, Roger Milla, hailed the choice of the World Football Governing body (FIFA) to award the organization of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
"These two countries met the specifications required from candidate countries and are not involved in corruption cases that we heard before the vote of the FFIFA Executive Committee," said the old Lion, now itinerant ambassador to the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon and one of the five ambassadors of the Qatar Bid Committee, along with French Zinedine Zidane, Serbian Bora Milutinovic, Dutch Ronald de Boer, Argentine Battistuta and Spaniard Joseph Guardiola.
According to Milla, quarter-finalist with the Indomitable Lions at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, "Russia is a great nation of football known since the era of the USSR", and Qatar "is admittedly a small country in terms of geography and sports, but it is already very large in terms of infrastructure."
He said "there is no doubt that in eight and 12 years, respectively, the world will experience two successful World Cups.
"For the 2010 World Cup, we had heard all sorts of criticisms from the West and everyone appreciated the magnificent World Cup hosted by South Africa.
"The World Cup Project in Qatar is impressive; there will be stadiums which do not exist in Europe. Moreover, distances being very short, there will be a really very friendly World Cup in 2022."
-0- PANA EGS/JSG/IBA/EMD/VAO 7Dec2010
"These two countries met the specifications required from candidate countries and are not involved in corruption cases that we heard before the vote of the FFIFA Executive Committee," said the old Lion, now itinerant ambassador to the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon and one of the five ambassadors of the Qatar Bid Committee, along with French Zinedine Zidane, Serbian Bora Milutinovic, Dutch Ronald de Boer, Argentine Battistuta and Spaniard Joseph Guardiola.
According to Milla, quarter-finalist with the Indomitable Lions at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, "Russia is a great nation of football known since the era of the USSR", and Qatar "is admittedly a small country in terms of geography and sports, but it is already very large in terms of infrastructure."
He said "there is no doubt that in eight and 12 years, respectively, the world will experience two successful World Cups.
"For the 2010 World Cup, we had heard all sorts of criticisms from the West and everyone appreciated the magnificent World Cup hosted by South Africa.
"The World Cup Project in Qatar is impressive; there will be stadiums which do not exist in Europe. Moreover, distances being very short, there will be a really very friendly World Cup in 2022."
-0- PANA EGS/JSG/IBA/EMD/VAO 7Dec2010
