Friday 3 December 2010

World Cup 2018

Unlike the English media and footballing circle who are completely incensed and understandably hugely disappointed, I'm not really bothered where World Cup 2018 will be staged. I mean of course I do have a soft spot for England, but that's not the point. The mystery is, how Russia outbids England (and, for that matter, other candidates).

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Terry Venables said it all and I can't agree more with him.


"FIFA led us to believe the bidding countries would be judged on things like stadiums, IT networks, transport links, hotels, training facilities and communications. That was clearly not so. After all, who in their right mind would score Russia above England in any of those categories? To do so, would be farcical, as anybody who has ever been beyond the old Iron Curtain would tell you."
 
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"If the aim by FIFA all along was to give 2018 to a nation that had never held a World Cup before then fine.I just wished they would have told us and the FA at the outset. It would have saved us £15 million and a lot of heartache.

Instead, the selection process became a charade - in fact a complete and utter sham.England never got the 2018 World Cup, because we were never going to get it."

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I don't believe for a minute that BBC's Panarama has anything to do with England's bid falling apart. I haven't watched the programme, but whoever thinks the prog is a scam can always provide counter-evidence to fend for himself. And if FIFA is upset because their integrity and reputation are tarnished (which are constantly under fire anyway), stand up and put their case forward.

Simple.

Why and how Russia and Qatar are preferred to England, Australia, the US or whoever is completely beyond me (or in fact everybody). I'm not all for big and powerful countries. And as Venables has remarked, it's ok if FIFA were prepared to award the hosting right to a first-timer. What's the point of all the evaluations then? It just seems, from what I've read on the news, that the England's delegation was blindsided and was made to believe that they were the favourites - only to discover they've got a meagre 2 votes, one of which was from a fellow countryman!

Now the question is - based on what criteria were these votes cast?