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Fifa president pleased with 'historic decision' in sport & criticises bad losers.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has implied that unsuccessful World Cup bidders have been viewed as bad losers.
The world football governing body caused a few surprises when recently deciding to give the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar in an anonymous vote.
England were one of the unsuccessful parties who were bidding for the 2018 tournament and the process has been surrounded in uncertainty and allegations of corruption after only two votes were secured.
Blatter, though, insists that it was always a principle of Fifa to build a legacy of football around the world and he has accused losing bidders of a lack of grace.
Geopolitics
He told Fifa's official website: "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.
"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."
Money
Asked if he understood the disappointment of the losing candidates, Blatter added: "Yes, but maybe some people have forgotten that in football you have to learn to lose as well as to win.
"It was a competition. Some people won, some people lost. That's normal.
"The sporting media don't always appreciate the social or cultural importance of awarding the World Cup finals to a country.
"They just think about penalties, corners, refereeing and money. But, as I've already said, this decision wasn't about making money."