We know FIFA is corrupt, and there is a lot of money in the W.C. for them. The practical side of me says why rig the draw when you are guaranteed to have a massive tournament regardless. But also it is FIFA an organization that is made up of people interested solely in their piece of the pie rather than the "good of the game". So of course it's possible even if it doesn't make sense. So a moral conundrum, be knowingly naive and pretend "FIFA would never do a thing like that", or boycott the World Cup. Guess I am going with the Naive option. (For the record don't think it is fixed. There are weird groups every year and Brazil's group although not the hardest could have been a hell of a lot easier too.)
Not this time, by looking down the track at the potential trainwreck that Russia and/or Qatar could become. Brazil with its protests and collapsing cranes will seem like nothing. FIFA will be watching the winter olympics very closely.
Eh... yeah, it's totally fixed. FIFA is a joke. Sadly, there is always that "I wonder if..." aspect to the games. I trust in our boys playing honestly so don't think our entertainment is WWE-style but I don't think International Soccer is honest. Eventually it will catch up and I would hope an international committee with some teeth could take it over and fix it or the whole thing will become a huge joke. That's not good for the sport - so anyone dismissing the reality of FIFA's corruption is being a bit disingenuous or actually don't mind a corrupt/fixed sport. Sigh. I don't know if the draw itself was rigged (why even do a random draw, seed them and set it up like NCAA) but I wouldn't put it past them. I mean, GERMANY/GHANA/PORTUGAL? For the US? I mean, comon - the story lines alone are pure gold but the chances of that happening is pretty remote - maybe one, or two of them but ALL three? It's absurdity. I'll watch (because of course I will) but I do wish something would be done about it.
With the rise of social media and control over the message becomes less and less possible, eventually FIFA's day will come. I can only hope it will be public enough and disgusting enough. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
i did think it was remarkable that both USA and England, who are not on FIFA's good side, ended up in Groups of Death while France got the easiest group in the tournament. also both USA and England ended up in Manaus after their coaches said "anything but Manaus!" also Argentina got a much easier draw than Portugal after Blatter is on record favoring Messi over Ronaldo. and here's another article: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/64491494/ but really does anybody even doubt that FIFA is rigged anymore?
I have a crazy idea, but follow me here! Imagine, if you will, that FIFA conspired with the presenters to pull the balls out of the bowls and present them in a manner that was close to random. That the balls themselves were reasonably indistinguishable from each other and the presenters were unable to tell them apart. That no papers got switched. That the male presenter dipped his hands out of sight because he wanted to rest them on a surface while opening the balls. That half the teams in the World Cup get placed into harder than average groups, and half the teams get placed into easier than average groups, and which ones end up where has only a modest impact on FIFA's bottom line and thus probably wouldn't have been worth the fallout of rigging the draw if it were to be discovered on live television. That the United States ended up with a difficult group not because FIFA hates Americans and wants to punish us, but because of bad luck in the draw. Probably too crazy to be true, but it's worth thinking about.
England is not on "FIFA's good side" but where is the evidence for the US?Our Fed president is now on the executive committee and Blatter was lobying for the US to get the 2022 World Cup. Also a quick review of "FIFA official Sponsors" has a number of American names. Not saying it's beyond FIFA to rig the draw,( although I personally don't think they did) just don't think the US's difficult group is evidence of it.
We are challenging them on the Qatar/Russia bids... and their veracity. I think it's sad that it's so corrupt. We've known it but I don't like the attitude of "it is what it is"...
Not only that, but is France really on FIFA's good side, considering FIFA rigged the seeding in 2010 to make sure France wasn't seeded? I mean, that's one thing we know FIFA actually DID rig, behind closed doors, within the rules the organization set for itself, and with the whole world knowing what they were doing and why they were doing it. But I'm not buying that FIFA created a live televised event and rigged it just to do stuff like get petty retribution on teams that complain about their failed World Cup hosting bids.
How have we challenged the Qatari and Russian bids? This is genuine? Have we threatened them in court? Have American Companies like McDonalds and CocaCola refused to sponsor FIFA? Have we threatened a boycott of either World Cup? I am not trying to be snarky I am actually asking. I know we haven't done any of those things, are there other things that we have done that I don't know about? All I am aware of is help blow the whistle on Jack Warner, but notice we only did this AFTER we lost the 2022 bidding process? I just don't see where FIFA has an ax to grind against the US, and for that matter what is FIFA. It's not a monolithic organization with one agenda. It is a bunch of individuals all with their own priorities looking to get as much from trough as they can.
For conspiracy theorists, evidence against their view is evidence of a cover up and therefore, this is an unfalsifiable belief that people will hold regardless of what happens. Someone please explain to me why Fifa would fix the draw so that Brazil must face either Spain or the Netherlands in the Round of 16?
It is fun talking about it but I don't think it was rigged. FIFA as a corrupt organization on the other hand...
Duh OP! Something that I was also just thinking about is that the USA and a couple other big countries were sacrificed in order to increase ratings, by that I mean that if you know that you'll get great ratings from the USA, for example, then it doesn't matter to put them in the sh!ttiest location you can get away with...
For the record, I have no idea if the draw was rigged or not. The fact of the matter is it could have been rigged in any number of ways other than changing the slip of paper in full view of a live audience. After recent events with the NSA, Snowden, etc... my previous knee-jerk dismissal of conspiracy theories has vanished. We know FIFA is corrupt, so why would they limit their control over the ability to manipulate the draw? Again, I have no evidence that they did (nor does it matter). I do believe when they piss off the wrong person, they will eventually be exposed.
i believe the most vocal criticism of the Russia & Qatar World Cups has come from the USA and England. and Australia, forgot to mention them, their group is pretty tuff too. but this may be because i only read English language soccer news, idk... not talkin' about the draw four years ago, a lot has happened since then. in the latest draw France was the country slated to be moved from the European pot to the African pot, and then FIFA decided to change it to a random European country before the draw. do you really think FIFA is above petty retribution on teams that complain about their failed World Cup hosting bids?
FIFA being corrupt and the draw being fixed are not the same thing. I'm willing to believe bribery played a huge role in the next couple world cup allocations. But, the whole, our group is hard FIFA hates us, the draw was rigged persecution complex just sounds like sour grapes to me. Or I guess you gotta believe FIFA must really hate Australia and Costa Rica, huh? We're not that much worse off than most in our Pot. Mexico's group is slightly easier but still tough, Australia is screwed, Japan got a nice one, Costa Rica is screwed, Honduras got a good one, Iran has a slightly easier group than us but it's close, same with South Korea. Really, I'd say only 2 of the 8 teams in our pot got glaringly easier groups than what we got and 2 teams got significantly harder draws.
I don't think this is primary argument for the fixed draw. The people that say "FIFA does such and such because they hate the US" have absolutely no ground to stand on. I think the better argument is that FIFA fixes the draw to maximize profits and TV ratings. USA versus Germany? That's good for higher ratings in both countries because of Klinsmann. It's highly marketable. USA vs Portugal, again, highly marketable in both countries. The last time we played in the WC the USA pulled off a huge upset. USA vs Ghana? Highly marketable. Ghana versus Germany, another story line. Netherlands vs Spain in the first game of the group? Everyone's going to tune in to watch that one. That doesn't prove anything at all, but I think it's OK to be suspicious. It absolutely could be a coincidence, but it does seem just a bit too good to be true.
My, my, such hopeless cynicism on these fine Boards..... For myself I have full confidence in the WC draw. I have full confidence that FIFA carried it out with exactly the same care for fairness and exacting integrity as the awarding of the WC to Russia and then to Qatar. .........
If the draw was rigged... USA would be given the easiest group. If you can win the hearts of Americans, you'd get a crapload of money. NFL dwarfs the EPL in revenue. its quite insane. We also have MLB and the NBA that make a crapload as well. WC in Qatar. Definitely bribed though.
Whut? While I agree (whole heartedly) that the WC in Qatar was bought by bribes, the first assertion makes absolutely no sense. The USA has craploads of money, but FIFA aren't going to pull strings for the USA, much in the same way FIFA isn't really kind to Japan either (See--Any Asian Champions League from the 90's onward), despite their vast sums of money. Why? Because while the USA can bring in cash, it's all over the table. Sure, hosting the world cup in the USA brings in the ducats, but guys like Blatter and Platini don't get their money fairly--They get their money from bribes, and shady contracts--Things that will seriously land you in prison for a very very long time here in America. After all, what people in Qatar call "Solid business practices" (Especially when it comes to labor), we here in the US of A call "Ten to fifteen years in minimum security". You ever wonder why FIFA gives as much credence to little carribean tax shelter islands as the USA? The same reason why Vulture Capitalists here in the USA do business there too. First of all, France and Platini are on FIFA's good side. Sure, France wasn't seeded, but they were placed in with the weakest hosts to ever host a world cup--Even the USA advanced from the group in 1994. In fact, the only reason why France did not advance in 2010 was because Domenech was and currently remains the God Emperor of Asshat coaches. Although I agree somewhat on your second point- but FIFA DID rig the draw. FIFA did not rig the draw for petty retribution, but as Alexi Lalas said--In order to create drama and interest in the World Cup. I think everybody knew that Brazil was going to get the winner of the MX/NZ playoff in their group. Likewise, I felt that FIFA were already going to pair the USA with the Ghana/Egypt winner. Ghana adds drama, and if Egypt went instead, that also would have created drama (and ratings). In fact, I'm still stunned that England wasn't chosen in our group instead of Portugal, but that would have been *too* obvious...And Portugal/Germany does make for a great match.
Because the truth matters ... a lot. And an honest inquiry into the truth is one of the foundations of civilization.