England Bid for World Cup 2018

[isaidno]

Qatar are ranked 113 in the world , just below Central African Republic and above Antigua and Barbuda

[Brainy]

Feel sorry for that guy who stuck £10,000 on England to win

[Asha]

I think their stadium might need expanding slightly for the World Cup Final.

Yeah, how they're going to manage that in the next twelve years I don't know.

[Mack]

I agree, they should be censored to appease our corrupt FIFA overlords - the unpatriotic bastards.

There is a time and a place for everything.

In life, not just World cup bids, you have to play the game to get ahead.

Sometimes you know you are dealing with assholes, but you play the assholes game to get what you want, THEN if you want to expose corruption or whatever... go for it.

The media dropped their logs at the worst possible time, on purpose. I have no respect for that.

And the only people who suffer are the ordinary paying fans... after all.. the media bods will go to the World cup all expenses paid wherever it is.

[Kent]

Yeah, how they're going to manage that in the next twelve years I don't know.

I didn't say I didn't think they were going to do it, of course they're going to expand it in no doubt extravagant fashion. The fact that this is the currently best stadium in the country just about sums up why a WC in Qatar is wrong. Along with many other reasons...

[Christoph]

Fifa going to the sheikers and rich russians, wow didnt see that coming, atleast they can sleep on a nice comfy bed of money

[SirBlueFoxington]

Haha! Russia and Qatar, nothing dodgy there then.....

[Corky]

Qatar - fucking .

Wait...that means they'll be in the World Cup...deary me.

Quite.

[Tilley]

[Daggers]

[Houdini Logic]

Who gives a fuck, we're better looking and less corrupt than any other country in the world

[MC Prussian]

Pleased with Russia, about time they get to host a major tournament.

Quatar, though - laughable. But money talks better than sense.

[FoxyPV]

How come Holland/Belgium get 4 votes in the first round, but then only 2 in the second?

What made two voters change to Russia?

[Guest lcfc80]

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4c1883cc23.html

...Or do your own search for information--you'll find a lot more accounts that detail who builds what in Qatar. They're not exactly "local people" and plenty aren't "happy." Here's hoping things change for the better soon.

you complete moron, go back and read again, i was talking about russia with another poster, NOT Qatar, now wind ya neck in empty head

[BlueSi13]

So what was widely accepted as the best bid by a million miles doesn't even make it further than the rank outsiders...why do we even bother? "Anyone But England" strikes again......for how long must we be seen as the bad guys on the international scene? Why doesn't England just withdraw from the international football, it's not as if we have a strong team at the minute anyway.

[darko2k7]

Anyone else just watch skysports when they were talking to the Aussie bloke tlaking about the Qatar bid and how dodgy it is

1) 40 / 50 degree heat

2) time zone issue's

3) and this the big one there is a strong rumour that they will move the tournament to spring to combat the heat which will be smack bang in the main part of most major league's seasons, which if true will cause massive problems

[Guest lcfc80]

Anyone else just watch skysports when they were talking to the Aussie bloke tlaking about the Qatar bid and how dodgy it is

1) 40 / 50 degree heat

2) time zone issue's

3) and this the big one the there is a strong rumour that they will move the tournament to spring to combat the heat which will be smack bang in the main part of most major league's seasons, which if true will cause massive problems

why's everyone banging on about heat, it was roasting in usa94, big deal

[Guest Bilo]

Am I the only person who isn't surprised?

Russia's bid for 2018 wasn't great, not that that matters cos FIFA are corrupt as fuck anyway, but did we really expect the best bid to win? Really? It was always going to go to the country that was offering the best bribes. If you don't think England were prepared to indulge in some of the corruption you must be mad.. What do you think the June 2008 friendly with Trinidad and Tobago was all about? Flying halfway across the world to play a team ranked dozens of places below us for footballing reasons? Or perhaps it had more to do with currying favour with Jack Walker, CONCACAF President and an important vote in the World Cup process. Obviously though, the England bribes and arse kissing paled into insignificance when compared with the Russian bid that apparently had more issues than Readers Digest.

Why not play Brazil v England in Doha if it keeps the suits sweet, never mind the fans having to fork out to fly all the way to Qatar for a match. In the end, it did more for Qatar 2022 than England 2018. The result of which is an World Cup that will be played in an alcohol free environment (sure the fans of European and South American teams will love that), a tiny country with literally no footballing heritage, heat that will make your oven look a bit nippy and stadia that will need to be air conditioned. But also happens to have the good fortune to be absolutely fucking floating on a sea of oil that enables the rulers of the country to shovel dollars into the suits pockets. Is Qatar a suitable place to host a World Cup? Course it isn't, it has disaster written all over it. If you think South Africa had problems, wait till you see the run-up to Qatar 2022. Does it matter though? No, so long as the executive boxes and hotels are ready for the suits and sponsors. The players and fans can go fuck themselves. They're unimportant. Obsolete.

The FA and Premier League are hardly innocent victims though. They're a massive part of football's farcical greed that has made the world's most popular sport a global laughing stock today. Why would countries like Russia and Qatar be prepared to sling bribe after bribe at FIFA if for one there wasn't money to be made, and two FIFA weren't so openly corrupt they were prepared to take it? It's organisations like the FA and the Premier League that have helped turn the sport from the game of the people to the game of big business and corporations and today, the chickens came home to roost. Hope you're fucking proud.

[stripeyfox]

Anyone else just watch skysports when they were talking to the Aussie bloke tlaking about the Qatar bid and how dodgy it is

1) 40 / 50 degree heat

2) time zone issue's

3) and this the big one there is a strong rumour that they will move the tournament to spring to combat the heat which will be smack bang in the main part of most major league's seasons, which if true will cause massive problems

Fifa won't move the time of the tournament. Qatar asked if it was a possibility at the outset and were told no. That's why they went for the aircon grass I suppose.

As for time zone issues, ridiculous. There will be time zone issues wherever it's played!

[Guest DavidJCW]

They hosted a major tournament only 10 years ago

And?

South Korea hosted the 2002 WORLD CUP, not even a different tournament and still they're going for it again... you have to remember that at the time of the competition, it'll have been 18 years since the last major tournament.

However, none of that matters now as Russia have won it... pff.

Fix from start to finish I'm afraid. Blatter wanted the World Cup around the world, well he's done it... amazing that isn't it. <_<

First WC in Asia... first WC in Africa... first WC in Eastern Europe... first WC in the Middle East.

A fair and unbiased vote, I think not!

[Guest lcfc80]

Fifa won't move the time of the tournament. Qatar asked if it was a possibility at the outset and were told no. That's why they went for the aircon grass I suppose.

As for time zone issues, ridiculous. There will be time zone issues wherever it's played!

wise words my friend, wise words

[Finnegan]

Bring on the natural resources world cups!

2018 Gas and 2022 Oil!

Fifa, powering the future!

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Qatar's an interesting choice - glad it beat the USA, they didn't need to have it again and as the Aussie's went out in the first round there wasn't much choice in that catorgery. Qatar were proposing some interesting ideas, so maybe, just maybe, there World Cup will bring a new slant on the tournament and the game will be better for it.

Like it or not, FIFA's recent idea behind chosing World Cup hosts was to bring the game to a new auidance and build a legacy that would live on after the World Cup. England's bid had a major difficulty here because most of the items were in place already - dare I say it, Ireland might have had a better chance than England of hosting this World Cup.

Englands bid had nothing unique about it, it was all pinned on us holding a good well organised show and how passionate we are as football fans - but that bits mute because every country has that degree of passion, its difficult to quantify. Add to that the fact that we're holding the Olympics in a couple of years time, we may also look a bit greedy (although I think this would have been a small factor, but could have counted non-the-less).

The final nail in the cofin - our press, we'd already had a go at the corruption story a couple of months back so why bring it up again just before the vote? Yes there were comments made that suggested this should not effect the voting process, but that could well have been because England only had 2 voters then and so all of those who were not voting for England were definately not voting for England now. The whole process is a scratch my back we're scratch yours, so effectively we drew our own sword and got it turned against us.

Personally, I thought Spain and Portugual stood a better chance, as it proved as they are pretty similar to us in terms of infrustructure of stadia etc, but they've not had it before and they at least had the uniting two countries angle - although FIFA claim not to like co-hosts, I think this would have been an exception.

Ultimately, Europe is running out of countries that could hold the tournement for the first time, so if we're patient it will come - but if we do bid again, we need to give a more unique angle rather than just spiel.

[breadandcheese]

Or perhaps it had more to do with currying favour with Jack Walker, CONCACAF President and an important vote in the World Cup process. Obviously though, the England bribes and arse kissing paled into insignificance when compared with the Russian bid that apparently had more issues than Readers Digest.

That's probably where the bid team went wrong, currying favour to a dead ex-benefactor of Blackburn Rovers. he was never going to hold much sway.

I agree with all that you've said. The one saving grace is that we can now stop pretending that we like Jack Warner and the other corrupt FIFA exec members. The fact we only got two votes, one of which was ours shows that we (I guess by we I mean the FA) have wasted a lot of money and time wooing precisely one other member of exec to vote for us.

The fact Qatar was awarded the world cup speaks volumes about FIFA. This is after all a nation in which homosexuality is illegal, a nation in which alcohol is forbidden (unless in expensive licensed bars), a nation which is dangerously hot in the summer (how fun to be a fan in a fanzone), a nation which two years ago the UN refugee agency reported “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so”, a nation which treats migrant workers so appallingly bad. All these things are deemed irrelevant, as is a FIFA report describing the bid as extremely high risk.

[surrifox]

Abramovich and his cronies will be more certain than ever that they have the financial clout and network of placemen and dupes to buy and sell the game even on a world scale. Hoping that his scumsea never win the european cup-the last bastion is the on the field activity