Yeah, like the Koch Brothers giving Paul Ryan's political organizations a $5,000,000 bonus a few days after the tax bill passed.
World Cup 2022: Qatar bid team accused of secret campaign to sabotage rivals https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44994041
That last paragraph is ridiculous if true. The US put on the most successful WC with no legit soccer league and probably about 90% of the population never watching a pro game before.
Yet totally believable. They put the PR out there and 'encourage' the ExCo with bags of cash, stadiums, trade deals, art, etc. All things that the Qataris did do and it's easy to believe the ExCo would think whatever they're told to think. Not that any amount of proof of bribery, corruption, mass death, slavery, etc will change anything.
This will never be re-litigated and I don’t have much hope for serious reform. The only way forward as I see it that will reduce the probability of a redux (apart from public vote disclosure) is for FIFA to grow some stones, protect their brand, and put in place clearly stated prerequisites re: basic criteria before they even entertain solo bids going forward. 1) at least 8 venues with a capacity of 30K+ already in existence. 2) the host have been consistently (90-95% of the time) rated 70 or higher over the last x years. Rating by FIFA’s new Elo formula. 3) the country must have at least 200k private hotel rooms/private AirBnB type units. There are 15 countries that meet these requirements: USA, MEX, BRA, ARG, COL in the Americas: JAP, KOR, AUS in the AFC/OFC. The Big 5 + TUR and RUS in UEFA. Others are close: Iran, Canada, Morocco, China, Egypt, etc. Multi-country bids will be accepted as long as 1) in aggregate, they meet 1 and 3 above. 2 is not necessary, but only “2 protected spots” max per bid and any host not meeting the top 70 criteria = nonprotected spot. Example: assume Concacaf gets 5 spots. In a USA, MEX or USA/MEX joint bid, they keep all 5. In a USA/CAN joint bid, they’d lose 1 (due to Canada missing the performance benchmark). Even if they met the benchmark, Concacaf would lose a qual allocation spot in a USA/CAN/MEX joint bid. Setting some basic standards doesn’t prevent corruption, but at the very least, it would protect the tourney quality (in terms of organization and logistics) if corruption influences the host selection process.
Pretty much. The odds of my proposal are more or less equal to pigs flying. The odds of revisiting Qatar at this point is equal to flying pigs emerging from a super volcano and terrorizing the world by shooting hot lava from their pig asses from above though. In all seriousness though, most FAs wouldn’t have a problem with this. Apart from Africa and the Middle East, they basically adhere to it. Otherwise China or Chile or Canada would have put together a serious solo bid by now. Some have put together bids, but they don’t really get off the ground. The only hurdle is that it eliminates some countries from playing the corruption game. But let’s not pretend the voters couldn’t be bribed from the US, Australia, Turkey, Spain, Argentina etc too. They still get their pockets filled. But the WC would be held in a country with the credibility to pull it off.
The aim isn't to present a convincing argument and sway the voters on logic, it's to give them cover to vote for Qatar in exchange for a bribe.
Yea, I get it but the statement is so far off that it would be hard to believe it in my mind at least. Don't get me wrong I'm all for new countries hosting but those countries need to be reasonable. A tournament of this size can not be hosted by a country so small. Unfortunately, they don't get along with their neighbors because a Gulf States World Cup would be great. Muscat, Al Ain, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama could all host plus some other cities with lesser known names. If they lose the cup which I don't think they will I hope it goes to Australia.
IF they lose it, my money is on China to replace them. They can pull it off, it keeps it in Asia, and they'd be willing and able to get it the same way Qatar did in the first place. UEFA would also likely support it as it'd basically guarantee western Europe the 2034 WC.
I'd make it 40k, not 30k. Aus would be discounted either way as most of their large stadiums are cricket grounds, shared with other sports which are unsuitable for the World Cup in their current configuration.
Yep, along with Argentina and maybe Paraguay. Then you know FIFA will be dying to go to China but at that point it will be (by 2034) 16 years since the last WC in Europe and 28 years for western Europe, so there'll be a lot of pressure to go back there. So either China or Europe in 2034 and the other in 2038.
Athens thought they would get the 1996 Olympics as well for the centenary and that didn't quite work out. I can't see three successive cups outside of Europe happening.
Uruguay only borders Argentina and Brazil. It has a population significantly smaller than Costa Rica or Panama. There are 2 stadiums with a capacity of over 30,000 and 4 with a capacity of over 20,000. I can't see it being the senior partner.
I can in this particular case due to the centennial. And since when is current stadium size an issue? They just build however big they need in whatever quantity they need, future be damned. (Pretty sure that's written somewhere in FIFA's rules for hosting a WC)
Maybe a replay of the 1930 World Cup final would be more appropriate, Uruguay vs. Argentina. You could even add a third place playoff game between the USA and a country that no longer exists.
I guess if Qatar can host anyone can. I'd think Uruguay with a lot of Argentine help would be an enormous sentimental favorite.
Qatar has the same population as the City of Chicago, so population doesn't matter as much as it should.
They can do what the Russians did: hire foreign slave labor. They used North Koreans. I'm sure if those two chose, they could do the same.