FIFA: Re-run of 2022 World Cup vote a possibility

Qatar originally proposed 12 venues. Only 3 of those actually exist already (and all have major renovations planned).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup#Venues

Also, this story is great:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/world-anatomically-correct-soccer-stadium-article-1.1522772

 

The more I see the more convinced that it isn't going to be in Qatar. I think Blatter and FIFA are letting Qatar get on with it, offering them shreds of hope until one of two things happen.

1) Qatar gives up. To much money to much bad press, they bit off more than they can chew and this just isn't worth it anymore. Maybe FIFA gives them a lesser competition (Club Championship perhaps), and either re-bid or give it to the 2nd place country, which also happens to already have the stadiums and infrastructure necessary to host a world cup and could probably do it on 2-3 years notice.

2) Eventually the issues become to much and FIFA yanks the World Cup. But they will have waited until it has become obvious to everyone but the Qatari's that this isn't going to happen, so FIFA get to look all reluctant about pulling it. If nothing else trips it first it will be the winter scheduling. I see no way that the European Leagues (and UEFA) will stand idly by and let FIFA drop the world cup in the middle of their season. One it is pulled the same case either a re-vote (if done early enough) or give it to the 2nd placed country.

 

now that I agree with, even if Yekaterinburg doesnt sort out their stadium site quandry, Krasnodar will be plenty happy to take up their spot (who I am extremely surprised did not get a spot in the first place).

I know it would have been a rediculous pipe dream, but to show the chinese, japanese, korean market some love a stadium in either Vladivostok and/or Khabarovsk would have been fun. That would have wrecked their bid though im sure.

ps sorry if my Sochi assessment was off base, i didnt mean to blow it out of proportion like that, poorly chosen words on my part.

 

I'm not normally the grammar police, but "too".

 

Putting games in Manaus didn't wreck Brazil.

 

Distance from Yekaterinburg to the nearest eastern city he mentioned, Khabarovsk is about 3,000 miles and 5 time zones away. Manaus to the next nearest Brazilian city hosting games, Cuiaba, is 900 miles and the same time zone. Brazil only has one other time zone hosting games. Russia's just a little bit bigger.

Not to mention Brazil won the bid by default. The 2014 bid was still during the FIFA rotation period, and all other CONMEBOL bids dropped out.

 

Who coined that "the Qatari bid was purely unicorns farting rainbows" quote? I think it was Andy Mead though I could be wrong. In any case, it sums it up just about perfectly, even setting aside the whole bribery business.

After all, we could've pitched hosting the damn thing on the moon. After all, we've already been there....

 

Meh, Russia one upped Brazil with Kaliningrad.

 

Why do you hate democracy?

I think what FIFA needs is a ruling like the one from the US Supreme court, Money = freedom of speech, so the "nations that supply the real money" can use that money to influence elections in FIFA.

 

Didn't see it posted in the last few pages, but Business Insider India summarizes most of the major issues...

http://www.businessinsider.in/14-Re...ing-To-Be-A-Disaster/articleshow/34066735.cms

 

lol, thank you for making me spit out coffee

 

#14 should've been put #1 on the list. No beer? That's not a world that I want to live in...

 

The whole 'Qatar hosting the World Cup' is a total corrupt joke...and EVERYONE knows it.....FIFA has zero credibility...zero....meanwhile, back at the ranch, the equally corrupt Ruskies are flying under the 2018 radar...

 

Probably because every thing wrong with Russia doesn't have much to do with the World Cup.

 

#13 shouldn't be on the list as that only affects audiences in one country... the NFL schedule should not affect international football calendar sorry! Surprised they didn't include anything about Qatar's national team's lack of WC experience, key national team players who are handed passports in a way that violates their own nationalization policies, or the fact that local games are so poorly attended... also the 2011 Asian Cup fiasco when they locked out thousands of genuine ticket holding fans lol.....

 

Not defending the article, it's light on details and full of holes, but I think the point being made is one of the largest audiences, as far as potential ratings go, may have a conflict in interest, which in turn may be viewed as a negative for some of FIFA's sponsors. If you're Nike, are you going to be willing to pay more for WC commercials that may not be seen by a good percentage of your target market because they are tuned into the Superbowl?

When in doubt, follow the money. Agree with your other points though. Nothing like having a bunch of sober tourists standing outside a stadium with useless tickets when its 120 in the shade.

 

You are right about the corruption of course, but like it was said above:

At least the Russians actually ahave a real soccer team, which is prety good, and will be able to pull of the tournament; never mind the despicable political regime.

Qatar is a pretend country, has a pretend soccer team (full of naturalized foreigners), and have no infrastructure actually built.

 

Don't (or historically wouldn't) people tend to say this this sort of thing anytime a WC is scheduled to be hosted outside of, say, Europe?

(Not to defend Qatar, per se, but the "pretend country" and "pretend soccer team (full of naturalized foreigners)" comments or line of analysis/attack, seem pretty short-sighted, fwiw.)

 

Come on bro! Give me an example of this happening with any world cup in the past. No one said this about south africa.

Qatar is a unique and horrible case. I have no issue with hosting it in the middle east. Hell, Saudi Arabia, as despotic as they are would have been a better host. At least they have a real team which has even made the world cup.

I guess you could make a point that foreigners thought the our team in 1994 would not have any "real" americans on it, just naturalized ones.

 

Like Harkes, Lalas, Wynalda, Cobi Jones, Balboa, and so on? The heart of that team were born/raised Americans brought up through the US soccer "system," with an infusion of certain "foreign" pros such as Dooley and Earnie Stewart.

 

But it might matter to FOX who bought the TV rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups based on them being summer events and not conflicting with their ability to show and/or bid for NFL rights. Which ultimately will mater to FIFA as FOX - depending on how the contract is written my be able to request a lower fee or just claim breach and cancel.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't Qatar be the first World Cup host to have never qualified for a World Cup?

 

Uruguay didn't qualify for the 1930 World Cup.

 

While I am totally against the whole Qatar World Cup based on some of the reasons listed the article(Labor, worker deaths, heat and/or winter cup, etc.). I don't have an issue of going from 12 to 8 stadiums. In general I think the World Cup should always be held in 8 stadiums as long as there are 8 groups. If you play in 8 stadiums and each group can have a "home" stadium. The first 2 of their group games in the same stadium and then 2 stadiums swap on game for the third game so they can be played simultaneously. It works much better for the fans and the teams. At most you are in 2 cities for the group stage and half the teams can stay in the same city for the whole group stage. The exception to this might be the host if they choose to play in 3 cities to satisfy the fans by spreading those games across the country. But even with this situation you could accommodate having the other teams in the host teams group playing 2 out of 3 in the same location by having them stay at a "home" field for the the non-host games. If you add on having group winners play the round of 16 games in the same location you could have up to 4 games without having to do any real traveling for fans or teams.

Situations like Brazil where teams like the US play in 3 different far flung cities for the 3 group games makes it much more difficult on fans and teams in terms of housing and/or travel. For they can either pick a central location and travel distances to each game or change hotels every 3 days or some combination of the 2.

Personal guess is the reason they pushed for 12 stadiums was due to bribes by companies that had an vested interest in the construction dollars. Qatar is certainly not big enough to need to spread out to 12 cities to involve all the local residents.