World Cup 2018 and 2022: Site Selection

[Platypus]

It's online at http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/bidders/live/index.html

Blatter was very enthusiastic about the Aussie presentation, and rather sober for Qatar's. South Korea has no chance and the US presentation starts now-ish.

[Lief 🗽]

Morgan Freeman!

Sometimes I forget that he is American, because I forget that he is not Nelson Mandela.

[Platypus]

I'm feeling more and more confident about our chances, the Australian presentation hit all the points that FIFA wanted to hear and also had some absolutely stunning shots of the landscape (check out the Australian presentation, there'll be a link to it in the FIFA page I provided before)

[Platypus]

Oh, and Sunil Galati seems like someone talking about a new Google project. Frank Lowy sounded like a genuine fan with real passion for the World Cup and Australia.

[Platypus]

Oh, Bill... trying to copy the Australian 'we're totez multicultural and it'd be a home world cup for the world' looks bad and is comparatively false. So STFU stoopid President

(It's 3:30am, don't attack me too harshly )

[The Man From G.O.P.]

The Japanese are truly quite strange.

[Platypus]

My highly biased rankings in terms of preference:

1: Australia
2: USA
3: South Korea
4: Japan
5: Qatar

My slightly less biased rankings in terms of likelihood:

1: Australia
2: Qatar
3: USA
4: Japan
5: South Korea

[Platypus]

BTW, here are the current odds:

2018
$2.00 Russia
$2.50 England
$4.80 Spain/Portugal
$23.00 Belgium/Netherlands

2022
$2.00 Australia
$2.80 USA
$3.25 Qatar
$15.00 Japan
$21.00 South Korea

Russia is a surprise

[Keystone Phil]

Of course, after hearing from several others I didn't bother to wake up early to try to find a broadcast of the presentations. 

Hugh is so brutally biased so can someone else give me a feeling of how things went? 

[Keystone Phil]

Morgan Freeman!

Sometimes I forget that he is American, because I forget that he is not Nelson Mandela.

Sometimes I forget that he is American because he sounds like the voice of God.

[Keystone Phil]

I'm watching the video on FIFA's website. It doesn't help that Freeman, who is nearly perfect, "missed a page." 

[Lief 🗽]

I'm watching the video on FIFA's website. It doesn't help that Freeman, who is nearly perfect, "missed a page." 

Yeah, that was dumb. Clinton's speech was really good though (as a speech made by Bill Clinton is wont to be).

[Keystone Phil]

How were the others? I've heard from several people (Australians included) that the Aussie presentation was a complete failure. Sorry, Hugh, but you really are too biased with this. 

[Lief 🗽]

Don't know, I only caught the American one. I waited like ten minutes for the Japanese one after that, but then I remembered that Japan isn't going to win anyway so I decided to not waste my time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

People, people, people. The presentations do not matter. The brown envelopes and fistfuls of used-oncers matter.

[Yelnoc]

England and the USA because they are both Anglophone nations so I will still understand what is going on.  And, hopefully, these nations will filture out the annoying buzzing sound in their broadcasts.

[Јas]

Don't know about 2018.

2022 should be interesting. My initial uninformed notion would be that Blatter et al would prefer the US - giving another push at the big-money market they really want into.

I don't get why S Korea and Japan are even bidding - they can't seriously go back to either so soon...can they?

One would think that the Ozzies could host reasonably well.
Qatar would presumably be insanely (maybe unfeasably?) hot.

England and the USA because they are both Anglophone nations so I will still understand what is going on.  And, hopefully, these nations will filture out the annoying buzzing sound in their broadcasts.

You have trouble following what's happening in sports when they are played in non-Anglophone places?   Do you insist on listening to vernacular commentary or something?

[Keystone Phil]

England and the USA because they are both Anglophone nations so I will still understand what is going on.  And, hopefully, these nations will filture out the annoying buzzing sound in their broadcasts.

Which is what might doom the U.S. If England is picked tomorrow, I'll be pleased but I won't be feeling great about our chances at hosting 2022.

[Platypus]

England and the USA because they are both Anglophone nations so I will still understand what is going on.  And, hopefully, these nations will filture out the annoying buzzing sound in their broadcasts.

Which is what might doom the U.S. If England is picked tomorrow, I'll be pleased but I won't be feeling great about our chances at hosting 2022.

Similar problem for Australia. The big difference is that if the US wins 2022, Australia has zero chance at 2026. Asia and North America will host 2022 and 2026. If Australia wins 2022 the US will still be the frontrunner for 2026; if the US wins 2022 Australia I almost certainly a no-hoper for 2022, especially if England wins 2018. Obviously if another Asian country wins 2022 we're dead until at least 2034, more realistically 2046 because China will get a World Cup sooner rather than later.

So in short, if you ever want to see an Aussie world cup, it has to be this one. The US's only real rival is Mexico and that's real in the loosest terms, so you'll host 2026 anyway. Give us 2022.

[Keystone Phil]

2022 was supposed to be our's, too. Mexico has obvious problems but just wait until they play the "Bring the World Cup to a poor, troubled part of the world that has never hosted the tournament!" card. 2026 is far from certain. Plus, I'd rather experience a World Cup on home soil when I'm 34, not 38. 

[Хahar 🤔]

2022 was supposed to be our's, too. Mexico has obvious problems but just wait until they play the "Bring the World Cup to a poor, troubled part of the world that has never hosted the tournament!" card. 2026 is far from certain. Plus, I'd rather experience a World Cup on home soil when I'm 34, not 38. 

Mexico's hosted the World Cup, twice.

[Keystone Phil]

2022 was supposed to be our's, too. Mexico has obvious problems but just wait until they play the "Bring the World Cup to a poor, troubled part of the world that has never hosted the tournament!" card. 2026 is far from certain. Plus, I'd rather experience a World Cup on home soil when I'm 34, not 38. 

Mexico's hosted the World Cup, twice.

Wow. Major embarrassment for someone like myself to forget that.    I guess I just block out 1970 because of the horrible result in the Final...

[Platypus]

Presuming 2022 goes to an Asian country, USA 2026 is about as certain as it gets. Asia and Europe would be ineligible; Oceania and Africa are no-hopers, and the only possible contenders for 2026 would be Argentina/Chile, Colombia (maybe with Venezuela if Chavez is gone), Mexico and at a stretch Canada. Of that field, the US would be almost unbackable favourites.

Compare that to the USA winning 2022. Asia would then certainly host 2026; Japan and Sth Korea are still out of the running but China would be a difficult nation to beat and a broader bid from the middle east than just Qatar would be the only real rival to it. Australia would have about as much of a chance as Japan or Korea has this time around.

Personally, I'd much rather see Australia host than China or the Middle East. I think a US world cup would be a good one, but the combinations suggest the ideal outcome would be Australia 2022, USA 2026, and both of us hoping the English fail

Spain/Portugal winning would actually be ideal, because it limits the intensity of Latin nations calling for a spanish-speaking world cup in 2026.

[Јas]

If Spain/Portugal win 2018, watch out for Qatar to do well for the 2022 bid.

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Bonhomie masks World Cup bid brutality, FT

[Platypus]

After watching the 2018 bids, go Belgium/Netherlands!