FIFA 2018 and 2022 World Cup Host Announcement

[0james0]

The whole thing stinks of corruption. I wouldn't have minded had Spain, Holland, Australlia etc won it. But this was just so blatant. Decisions made not for footballing reasons.

Qatar is worse than Russia as a choice, here are some more facts about it:

The country has a population of just 1.6m. Using the last world cup as a guide, it is reported that 1.4m people travelled to South Africa for the world cup. So their population will double overnight!

The country is fucking tiny

Qatar have NEVER qualified for a world cup tournament

[skel1983]

Poor England, try to stop this corruption but the reality is they need to cheat ( buy bribes ) themselves if they want to host it.

Made me laugh two votes in the first round got votes for Holland/Belguim then when England had been voted out the same two voters dropped the Holland/Belguim vote and lumped on Russia in the second round

Nearly as bent as Hammer!

[OumaFan]

England fans have every right to be disappointed but at least they didn't lose out to Qatar

When you lose out to Qatar you just pack up and never bid for another one again.

[somnolence]

I don't really mind that Russia won, after all it's the biggest country in the world, and while it's corrupt and racist at least some good can come from it with grounds being built and generally advancing forward.
Qatar on the other hand is a complete joke, I wanted Australia to win that. As someone else stated on here, Qatar has a population of 1.8million - less than even Wales, and it's half the size of Wales. All of the grounds are going to be within 30 minutes drive of each other.
Why not have the 2026 World Cup in Hawaii.

[Master]

Screwed in 2006 now 2018 we should tell the world they know sweet FA.

[Mark TKO]

the fact that we only got two votes sums it up really

Lost out we may have done and am bitter yes - but come on , two votes thats bullshit

[BIG H]

Us Brits and Americans have to just accept that the rest of the world hate us.

We could've saved a lot of time, money and effort with h=that bid, because we could NEVER win it!

We could have The Rolling Stones in the Eurovision song contest and still get "Nil Point"

[ono]

How exciting will the matches be in Qatar in 46 degree heat. Can't wait

[BIG H]

How exciting will the matches be in Qatar in 46 degree heat. Can't wait

Apparently they have got to build 9 completely new cities for the World Cup

[ono]

How exciting will the matches be in Qatar in 46 degree heat. Can't wait

Apparently they have got to build 9 completely new cities for the World Cup

Haha, unreal.

[superheavyrhun]

How exciting will the matches be in Qatar in 46 degree heat. Can't wait

I was actually listening to the response after the announcements on 5 live, and Qatar are going to be building the new stadiums with some sort of air-con, so that the playing temperature will remain about 28 degrees constantly.

As for drinking, I also heard they'll have tourist zones where the whole deposit scheme won't be in operation.

[OumaFan]

I'm disappointed but you could say Australia was screwed worse than us. We had it in 1994. They've never had it. They've got a decent team unlike Qatar, and a decent-ish league. I'm always told that Australia is a great sports country and I'm sure they could handle it without many problems. Would probably be a lot of fun actually.

[superheavyrhun]

Looking at it objectively, I think Russia can be looked at, like the South Africa World Cup, as a legacy cup. Vastly improved infrastructure, host cities getting a boost out of their post-communist stagnation, and a potential massive audience for football.

Qatar however, seems to be a baffling choice. Apart from the fact that it is in the middle east which again is an untapped football market, it doesn't seem to make sense. The number of people in the country, needing to build that many stadiums will need a huge per capita investment for such a small country. Also, those stadia are unlikely to be filled on a regular basis afterwards. Let's say 10 stadia x 80,000 people each. It would need half the country to go on a regular basis to make those pay off. On the plus side though, I guess the retiring players lured by the big oil bucks will get a decent stadium in which to earn their pension.

[Gandalf]

Looking at it objectively, I think Russia can be looked at, like the South Africa World Cup, as a legacy cup. Vastly improved infrastructure, host cities getting a boost out of their post-communist stagnation, and a potential massive audience for football.

Qatar however, seems to be a baffling choice. Apart from the fact that it is in the middle east which again is an untapped football market, it doesn't seem to make sense. The number of people in the country, needing to build that many stadiums will need a huge per capita investment for such a small country. Also, those stadia are unlikely to be filled on a regular basis afterwards. Let's say 10 stadia x 80,000 people each. It would need half the country to go on a regular basis to make those pay off. On the plus side though, I guess the retiring players lured by the big oil bucks will get a decent stadium in which to earn their pension.

I see no merit in granting these kinds of events to corrupt, fascist states. Russia is an awful choice for the World Cup. Who the heck is going to want to go there and watch the games?

I am no patriot as anyone knows, but the British campaign was far superior. We have the stadiums and infrastructure, we have experience in dealing with stadium level matches week in week out, we have the history and we have a relatively stable society. Most of London is foreign, so people won't have too hard a time fitting in when they come over to watch the games.

Two votes? The entire thing is rigged. Who on earth wants to see the world cup in Qatar? That is just ridiculous. The place is hotter than the sun and no bigger than my left shoe. It just doesn't make any sense to host such an event there. Again, nobody is going to have any fun in such conditions.

[OumaFan]

As one of England's team has said the fact that they have bids for two different World Cup's going at the same time just invites collusion.

I would love to read a book about the corruption in FIFA. I'm sure it would be somewhat lengthy. Its a different kind of corruption than any other organization I can think of. Different in that they just don't seem to care that they are seen as being obviously corrupt.

In the end I don't care that much. I would have liked to have seen it come to the US but England and Australia were probably fucked over more than us. I'm giving serious thought to going to Brazil 2014. How awesome is that going to be? Plus I could possibly be dead by 2026 (granted I'll just be in my 40's) and Brazil>Russia and LOL at going to Qatar.