Every day since the announcement was made that Qatar would host years ago I have been saying this statement to myself.
it doesnt matter at this point. No matter how corrupt the bid, Qatar is the host lets just live with that and keep it moving. its waaaay too much to try ad strip it away from them at this point. Since we already have a 48 team for 2026 I wouldn't mind them doing it for 2022. Maybe Jamaica can qualify for both now
F that! Why too late to switch? We have almost 4 years! Any number of countries can organize a better WC in 3+ years than Qatar can in the 10 years they’ve been given.
I guess what he means is that it seems too late because Qatar has already invested Billions of dollars in this thing when it comes to stadiums and infrastructure (and alleged bribes.)
Thank you, if they were to strip them they would have done it years ago. Im looking forward to the first Middle East World Cup
"FIMC currently stipulates that the preliminary draw shall be staged in July 2019, the timing is currently under review, with both the structure and timing of the draw expected to change." - FIFA So the Qatar2022 preliminary draw won't go ahead as first scheduled? Hopefully we'll have more info by early June. Are they thinking about several, smaller draws? E.g. start with a draw for the early rounds in AFC and CAF and move other draws to a later date (than July 2019).
erm.. some good news I guess.... turf in Al Wakra Stadium has apparently been laid down in record time.... https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/a...Wakrah-Stadium-turf-laid-in-world-record-time
Thanks for that post. I've just learnt there is a world record for laying turf on football grounds. Something to aspire to.
FIFA's feasibility study on a 2022 expansion: https://resources.fifa.com/image/up...48-in-the-fi.pdf?cloudid=idhwq1ychz15wifipcna
Just jotting down some notes as I read through: The tl;dr on this report is "Expanding to 48 for 2022 is fine because it makes more money, and money makes everything better" FIFA acknowledges that NT tournament expansion is going on everywhere and wants in on the action Once expansion happens, Concacaf's Hex is dead - so say goodbye to those epic USA/MEX WCQ. You want your Rio Grande Derby fix, it's Nations League + Gold Cup or bust. My conjecture: FIFA's not worried about legal ramifications of possible expansion b/c 1) they already cut deals with the TV networks over the new Nov-Dec calendar, 2) the US got 2026, so they presumably don't care anymore, and 3) if Australia were to raise a stink, some bread could be broken chez AFC to appease them before it gets to court (e.g. a Grondona special - how does a free friendly vs. Messi +10 sound?) Looking at the proposed match schedules, FIFA is seemingly set on the top seeds sitting out Matchday 3 I mean, they probably would have the lowest probability of needing a result on their bye day to avoid elimination, but woe to FIFA if it actually happens (e.g. Qatar getting eliminated because of a biscotto ) If 6 games/day is going to be the norm, and presumably FIFA wants all the games televised at different times (at least until Matchday 3 in the group stage), the only feasible option I see is kicking that first game off at 9am local time and having only 30-min breaks b/w matches. That is: 9:00 a.m. 11:30 a.m. 2:00 p.m. 4:30 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 9:30 p.m.
FIFA spent $50 million to develop their new slogan in secret ... ... and then Paul goes and reveals it on BigSoccer! J
This is pretty Brilliant though. It gives more credence to the idea by Infantino that we need more regional World Cups because there will be more Time Zones to choose from. For instance starting a game at 9:30 PM EST is perfect for the west coasters in California and Seattle (7:30 PT). Sucks for this World Cup though but this World Cup sucks anyway.
I doubt it will happen. Still never underestimate FIFA's greed and it wouldn't exactly be the only promise that was broken to make Qatar2022 a reality. Let us enjoy a 32 team World Cup for one last time. As a compromise, instead of expanding 2022 expand the one after to 64 teams. Then we can skip that 48 team atrocity altogether. World Cup 2026 to be expanded to 64 teams. With a much better format, a straight knockout World Cup finals (for competition purists), with repechage to avoid teams going home after one game. USA, Mexico and Canada are big enough to host the extra teams. Sounds like it will indeed be several, smaller draws. AFC's draw to be held on 17 April. CAF to follow soon after as they start in September? Furthermore a FIFA-spokesman has confirmed that "the draw for European World Cup qualifying is done in 2020" According to FIFA's feasibility study on a 2022 expansion the deadline for UEFA is March 2021. Possibly the draw could be held in December 2020 when the 2021 UNL Final 4 teams are known (in order to draw these teams into the WCQ2022 groups of 5, they can't be placed in groups of 6 in case there will be 10 groups in total). Makes more sense to hold the draw after the 2020 EUROs (or after the UNL group stage in 2020), instead of using rankings published two years before the WCQs even begin.
Actually, both the UNL and the Euro are Uefa sanctioned tournaments, where FIFA has no say in any of them. For the case of Uefa qualifiers for the WC, it is a FIFA sanctioned tournament, where FIFA has the last say on it. It doesn't need any of the results in the other mentioned tournaments to make it happen. In fact, FIFA has already ruled, that only FIFA rankings count for seeding teams in diferent qualifier groups, where the european coefficients don't count for anything.
Nothing in my post contradicts that, also IDK where you read anything about European coefficients because they weren't mentioned. The results from the UNL and EUROs are used in FIFA's rankings though. If "the draw for European World Cup qualifying is done in 2020" then FIFA's rankings could include results from EURO2020 (or even the subsequent UNL group stage). Originally the draw was planned to take place almost 2 years before the start of the European WCQs but it doesn't look like that will be the case. Now up-to-date (FIFA) rankings can be used instead and if they opt for a December 2020 draw then the UNL Final 4 teams are known and can be drawn into WCQ2022 groups of 5. We'll have to wait and see.
Yeah, although I guess you don't need to have 30-40 minutes between matches in the group stage (only KO stage when there is the possibility of extra-time and PKs). So could get away with: 12h00 14h00 16h00 18h00 20h00 22h00
I actually love listening to the anthems. It's a great pre-match feature. It has the supporting fans of the nations involved singing passionately, the players (most of them, anyway) sing along and get motivated by it and there are some anthems that I just simply love listening to because I think they sound very cool, mainly Italy (which I quite missed during Russia 2018), Portugal and the Argentine fans "Lo-lo-lo"-ing with their anthem.
Yeah, 2022 is a made-for-TV WC anyway. They're all kinda made-for-TV but now FIFA can't even fake it. Its kinda good to have the matches spread out over 13 hours of the day or so cuz then no part of the world is stuck watching all the games in the middle of the night. In each of the last 4 WCs, if you lived in China, pretty much every match kicked-off in the middle of the night. (I think there was 1 measly match in Brasil which would've had a late-morning kick off in Chinese time, but that's it!)