World Cup 2018 and 2022: Site Selection

[minionofmidas]

Russia for the first set, NOTA for the second.

[minionofmidas]

Qatar? Lol. Deary dear. Without a doubt that the stadia will be spanking new, structurally sound, designed according to the latest fashion, very expensive, and completed on time, but that's hardly the only thing to go by, is it?

I might have voted for Russia myself (see above, this thread), but then I have perverse taste. (Oh, also - it's not much of a surprise; England was "favored", but not heavily favored; Russia would have payed the second shortest odds.)

And apparently there's the off chance Temarii gets today's events thrown out in court anyhow (because he was excluded from the vote without due process, just because he's evidently guilty as all hell; and these later-revealed folks weren't. Lol.) , which would of course be FIFA Nuclear Meltdown. And thus won't happen.

[minionofmidas]

Of course, the US is not immune to corruption- see 2002 Olympics but this one smells.

IIRC they're usually considered round about tied with France for second most corrupt major western country (behind Italy o/c.)

EDIT: I suppose Spain counts as major, so make that third.

[minionofmidas]

Manama 2022 will be a month of fail though.

*cough* Doha *cough*

Oops. Same diff.

Not really. Manama has quite the pretty Old Town, actually.

Where you see next to no Arabs.

But not quite as badly as Australia did...

2022 Bids	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4
Qatar	11	10	11	14
USA	3	5	6	8
South Korea	4	5	5	-
Japan	3	2	-	-
Australia	1	-	-	-

The way this vote went down is the biggest flag IMO.  Russia's vote seemed pretty natural.

If Qatar were to win it as an underdog, it would have more likely to have happened with secondary votes (US wins the first couple of rounds and then loses to Qatar on final ballot).  This tiny country started out with a huge block against all favorites? And then went down by a vote and then for some reason picked up the Japan support instead of the Koreans?  lulz

They had bought the South American vote - this was out in public, actually. A lot of the other delegates probaby voted ABQ... exactly as most people on here would have done. That much makes perfect sense. And then there's probably some "at least it's Asia" voters from among Japan's Korea's supporters.

(Oh, and the US picked up Japan's support. Which makes sense, though only if the voters were either from Japan itself or outside of Asia altogether.)

[minionofmidas]

FIFA's Requirements for hosting World Cups (2010 edition)
a. be a dictatorship
b. suck at the game
c. total disregard for human rights
d. have tons of cash to pay Blatter and his cronies

Actually, Blatter is rumoured to have voted for England and the USA.

Blatter can't vote unless there is a tie.

IIRC he gets to vote twice in case of a tie.

[minionofmidas]

FIFA's Requirements for hosting World Cups (2010 edition)
a. be a dictatorship
b. suck at the game
c. total disregard for human rights
d. have tons of cash to pay Blatter and his cronies

Actually, Blatter is rumoured to have voted for England and the USA.

Blatter can't vote unless there is a tie.

IIRC he gets to vote twice in case of a tie.

Indeed.

Only in a last round draw, btw - note that Qatar got exactly half the vote twice in the early rounds. Blatter couldn't have ended it at these points by giving Qatar a second vote, even if he had wanted to (I've seen it claimed that he favored Russia and the US.)

[minionofmidas]

Kicker Sportmagazin reader poll:
Do you approve of the selection of Russia as host for 2018? 49.5% Yes, 50.5% No
Do you approve of the selection of Qatar as host for 2022? 10.5% Yes, 89.5% No.
Which *I think* is the most lopsided result I've ever seen in one of their weekly polls. It's entirely unscientific but not *that* kind of crappy.

[minionofmidas]

Oh, bet your ass that Russia would have gotten lower support if they'd asked the question before the vote.

[minionofmidas]

It's just a feature of polls. You ask people about some recent fait accompli that they hadn't formed a definite opinion of before it happend, and that's not a polarized issue, you get a somewhat exaggerated approval. Heck, it even happens (to a lesser degree) on issues that are polarized. Presidential approvals, say.

[minionofmidas]

It is rumoured that England lost a number of votes over the Panorama report.
Probably ought to be failed under "sad but true"...

[minionofmidas]

I'm also hearing reports that Soccer balls are round.

Strictly speaking incorrect.

[minionofmidas]

Only a serious option if a) the whole shebang explodes in Blatter's (and Blazer's and Teixeira's and Valcke's) face b) that's the only way they can save their skins.

[minionofmidas]

Why, by the way, was the 2022 site selected more than a decade in advance to begin with?

I think this was the first time they selected multiple tournaments at one meeting. I guess their reason was to save time.

I guess their reason was to increase the probability that bought executive members stay bought...

Pretty sure it wasn't the first time they selected multiple tournaments, but a return to long past bad form, though.

[minionofmidas]

Someone claim to Blatter that we won't watch - or rather, that tv won't pay in winter.

It's probably not entirely untrue, anyways.

[minionofmidas]

Why aren't they that important? They're as much a part of FIFA as the other leagues are.

They're not where the big $$$$$$$$ are.

And, let's face it, if anything beyond the big $$$$$$$$ were remotely relevant to this conversation, there wouldn't be any decision to host the World Cup in Qatar and thus no need to have this conversation.

[minionofmidas]

Can it just be hosted anywhere else? If it has to be in the AFC then just give it to the Australians or something?

Aside from the brutal match times (which actually would be a pretty big deal unless I went to Australia), yeah, I'd prefer that. Not that it matters. FIFA is clearly not just sticking with Qatar but doubling down on the decision.

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Uh, what? Going senile? Or just courtesy talking?

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Yes. That is doubling down. No one outside FIFA's inner circle even wants that option on the table.

[minionofmidas]

Also the AFC would go batsh**t if it was stripped from Qatar, and doubly batsh**t if it was taken outside of Western Asia and triply batsh**t if it was taken outside of the AFC.

Who cares? Literally one AFC member has made it to a World Cup semifinal, and they were hosting!

"...and they were hosting/cheating!" is what you meant.

Sadly, this won't be reversed. Listen, we all know the U.S. is the country that deserves to host the 2022 tournament but it just isn't going to happen at this point.

What did we ever do to deserve having that foisted on us again so soon?  As it is we'll probably get stuck with 2026.

Oh, little things like having world class stadiums have a little something to do with it.

Ever since getting screwed over for 2022, I've been pessimistic/paranoid about 2026. You watch: they'll somehow award it to Mexico or, more realistically, Canada. Just watch.

In the spirit of 2022, they should go for the Caymans.