Zwanziger to propose FIFA issue Qatar ultimatum
Berlin (AFP) - FIFA executive member Theo Zwanziger has said world football's governing body must tell Qatar to improve their human rights record or risk losing the 2022 World Cup.
Zwanziger told Sport Bild magazine he would propose an ultimatum at a FIFA executive meeting in Morocco on Friday.
Zwanziger said Qatar must adopt recommendations suggested in a report by international law firm DLA Piper to improve conditions for migrant workers, hundreds of whom have died, in the Gulf state.
The Piper report's recommendations have a deadline of March 2015, which Zwanziger says the Qataris must be made to meet.
FIFA's executive is to meet in Morocco on Thursday and Friday to discuss a report into the bids for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
"I will make a request at the FIFA executive committee meeting on Friday in Marrakech: the Qataris must, as stipulated in the Piper Report, have an independent commission to monitor the human rights situation at the World Cup sites, with a deadline of March 10 2015," Zwanziger said.
Zwanziger, a vocal critic of Qatar's ability to host a World Cup, said that if the March deadline is not met, "I would expect a national federation to put in a request for a vote by the 209 member federations at the FIFA congress at the end of May in Zurich on stripping Qatar of the World Cup."
Zwanziger, former president of the German Football Association (DFB), will step down from FIFA's executive committee in March and is expected to be replaced by current DFB boss Wolfgang Niersbach.
"It could be the DFB (will put in the request for a vote), Wolfgang Niersbach recently expressed a similar sentiment in that direction, for which I was very grateful," added Zwanziger.
