Met up with some friends today to talk about where we will watch the champions league final and we hardly got to talk about it at all. It kind of annoys me that anyone who wants to talk football these days wants to talk about the recent FIFA scandal rather than actual football, especialy when we have the champions league final and the womens world cup and the copa america. But yeah, I guess this conversation will probably continue for months to come as more sleaze is likely to be revealed. It seems that most conversations focuse on Qatar 2022, or better put, how it shouldnt be Qatar 2022. But I dont want to talk about why it shouldnt be Qatar 2022 or about Qatar at all, because yesterdays conversation that I had with my friends was mostly about where else 2022 could be. I`d like to summerise what we talked about and would like to read your ideas. Morocco 2022: Is what I think would be the best alternative. A football crazy country with alot of fans and stadia. Clubs with lots of supporters, great traditions and some very interesting history (google Moghreb Tetouan). Morroco has 6 stadiums with a capacity of arround 50 000 and and 4 stadiums with arround 30 000 capacity. I think the minimum capacity for a world cup stadium is something arround 39 000. FIFA says that 12 stadiums are needed and I think the final has to be in a stadium with a capacity of at least 70 000. So rather than building additional white elephants (as has been done disgracefully for the 2010 and 2014 world cups) here some stadium expantions would be enought. And with football being such a popular sport in Morocco, the money on expanding two 20 000 capacity stadiums to 40 000, three 30 000 capacity stadiums to 40 000 and two 50 000 capacity stadiums to 70 000 would be less than building a brand new white elephant that will never be used again. Of those 12 Morrocan stadiums: 4 would be in Casablanca 2 would be in Marrakesh 1 would be in Rabat 1 would be in Agadir 1 would be in Tangier 1 would be in Fes 1 would be in Oujda 1 would be in Laayoune As you can see, most of these cities are centerd in the Northern part of the country arround the coastline, so a world cup would be very focused arround that erea. Morocco is an Islamic country that is unique in it`s tolerance and acceptance of other cultures and beliefs. Drinking, nightclubs, sex before marriage, homosexuality, different religious beliefs and many more are tolerated in this country. Morocco is also a developing economy that doesnt rely on natural resources but one a growing agricultural, manufacturing, service and tourism sector. The conflicts of the middle east are also far away from it`s borders. With all this in mind, I believe Morocco would be an ideal country to host the 2022 world cup.
Do you think with all the political problems they have right now, Morocoo needs to be spending $$$ expanding football stadiums? Besides, what's the average attendance in the domestic league....less than 15,000 a game, I'd guess.
That attendance could still be higher than in Qatar, where only one stadium in the Qatar Stars League can even hold 15,000. That stadium is shared by two clubs in the 14 club league.
A NZ/Australia WC would be my selection. If it gets pulled from Qatar, it will look bad for the US that we spearheaded the FIFA investigations, although they were proper. I'd be fine with Australia, that way AFC keeps the bid and then bring it back to the US in 2026.
It does no look like there is any chance that the tournament is going to stay in Qatar. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...ld-Cup-according-country-s-whistleblower.html I think you reopen the bidding to non-UEFA countries and let it play out with a very open process. If the US has the best bid then they deserve to get it. I would like to see it come down to: Canada USA China Australia I think any one of those countries would put on a great show. I don't think there is any other country outside of UEFA and the last 4 non-European hosts (South Africa, Brazil, Japan, South Korea) that can put on the show at the moment with the expectations for the event. That is just reality.
Hopefully 2022 can go to either the US or Australia (I would prefer Australia since they've never hosted before). 2026 can go to either Mexico or the U.S., but I would prefer it went back to Europe since they're now eligible to do so. Either to England or Spain/Portugal for 2026 if it's a UEFA one.
I would like to see it go to Australia too since it is another option within the Asian Confederation. The only problem is that Europe would really be opposed to the start times of kickoffs. As we saw with Brazil 2014 the European Television networks put pressure to keep matches in line with their Prime Time scheduling. That would be nearly impossible to do with Australia. Kickoff for the Final would have to be at 4 AM locally which is not going to happen.
That is an interesting list. IMHO, Canada would be a push when compared to Qatar. That's yet another country that would take a spot who never makes it there on their own. I don't even care how corrupt FIFA, I just don't like the fact that a nation who never qualifies for anything bought what will probably be their only World Cup bid ever. Russia gets there on their own, so them hosting is a good choice no matter how it happened. I would say out of those 4, Australia would probably be my first pick since they always qualify now. China hasn't played in a World Cup since 2002, and the USA already hosted in 1994. I wouldn't mind if the USA didn't get one again until the 2040s because that way more generations of Americans will have an opportunity to see a World Cup in their home nation.
Canada don't have the stadiums. Only 5 stadiums over 40,000 that I can think of (granted 4 of them are over 50,000). They don't have cities either. Yeah, I know Qatar only has like 2 cities or something, but up until they were chosen you usually had to have a minimum of 10 different legit host cities. Remember if its taken away from Qatar, the replacement will have less time than usual to prepare.
The fact that Qatar is marginally worse than North Korea or whoever else would normally qualify from Asia must be the most insignificant reason I ever heard of for them not being a worthy host nation. Canada instead of Qatar would be a huge improvement for many reasons, but they are not a great option to host on short notice because they simply don't have 10-12 large stadiums.
Yeah I cannot put together a very good tv schedule for Australia. Any way you cut it, it is going to suck for Europe and really suck for the States. Canada is not that far away from being able to pull it off the way things stand right now. This list below puts them at 10 stadiums in 7 cities Toronto - New 80,000 Stadium - Rogers Center (54,000) - BMO Field + 10,000 seats = (41,000) Montreal - Olympic Stadium (66,000) - Stade Sapato + 20,000 = (41,000) Vancouver - BC Place (54,000) Edmonton - Commonwealth Stadium (56,000) Calgary -McMahon Stadium + 10,000 seats = (46,000) Winnipeg - Investors Group Field + 10,000 seats = (44,000) Ottawa -TD Place Stadium + 20,000 seats = (44,000)
Canada could completely host the 2022 WC, and there's enough time to build/upgrade existing stadia to meet the requirements. Honestly, though, can't see Canada getting it so soon after the WWC, but you never know.
Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal are all damn impressive, and there are some smaller scale cities like Saskatoon, and Regina in Saskatchewan, Winnipeg in Manitoba, Ottawa, and Hamilton in Ontario, Quebec in Quebec, and plenty of others. I would love to add some Canadian cities to a US bid, but I also think they could host a major tournament, they've now hosted two major events in the past eight years ('07 U-20 World Cup, and now the Women's World Cup), they do have plenty of cities but need to fix that artificial turf problem. A joint bid could work to, and would address the smaller scale city problem, could add Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver etc. Personally, I'd be fine with whatever, just as long as it's a worthy country and a good choice, which the current two are clearly not.
I don't think Russia is all that bad. At least they have a team that is competitive in UEFA. They'll put on a good World Cup. I think some people are upset about Russia getting it because a lot of people were really hoping for England in 2018. Qatar is just an all out awful bid in every way. It's a terrible climate for summer sports, no alcohol, and they have a crappy team that has bought what will probably be their only World Cup bid ever. If England had been able to bride the voters and the USA/Australia had too, then I don't think there would have been quite the uproar because a lot of people wanted to see England get the World Cup. People like English soccer.
It seems like a lot of people who want Russia to lose '18 are still fighting the cold war. Really, aside from that, oppostion has been muted in comparison to the immediate hostility to Qatar's winning bid.
Even though Russia received the lowest score in the technical ratings for 2018 it wasn't far off the mark. There were other things like having a cup in eastern Europe that were in its favour as a host, as well as the fact there wasn't much doubt it could host. Qatar's bid contained fantasy. We had air conditions stadiua, hotels (and even whole host cities) that had yet to be built along with a climate that threatened the health of atheletes.
Yeah I know. I remember reading that England tried to buy votes, but no one seems to care. A lot of that has to do with England actually having a good team and a culture that people are interested in. If it is ever discovered that Germany illegally bought the 2006 World Cup then no one will care either because they have a good team, good beer, a nice climate, and legal prostitution. I think the biggest driving force behind people actually trying to bring down FIFA after all of this is the fact that a crappy national team is getting an automatic spot in a World Cup that will be played in an anti-party country ruled by Sharia Law.
England's attempts to woo Warner, although nauseous, seem like laughably small fry in comparision to what's now been revealed: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/13/england-2018-castigated-fifa-report-world-cup
Yeah I know it wasn't near as bad, but even if it was people still wouldn't care because England has beer and a team good enough to get to the World Cup.
Remember this would have to pass the FIFA Congress. Not a chance USA or England win a vote in the FIFA Congress for anything. The game times won't be great for Europe or North America, but I think the only reasonable host for 2022 is to keep the tournament in the Asian Confederation and have Japan be the host. The new Tokyo Olympic Stadium will be almost brand new having been used for the 2019 Rugby World Cup final and 2020 Olympics. I see people gung-ho on Australia. Don't know why. It wasn't the first bid eliminated solely because of corruption. It wasn't a good bid. It currently has a finals quality stadium, but financing plans for renovations on many of the secondary stadiums have disappeared since 2010 and would need to be entirely restarted. There isn't enough time in a condensed schedule for that. Japan has the stadiums already. Korea's original bid was probably better than Japan's, but since 2010 they cancelled plans on renovations on many stadiums whereas Japan's have still gone ahead due to the Rugby World Cup and Olympics.
Actually I kind of liked the odd game times for 2002. I worked Monday through Friday 7 am to 5 pm at that time, so I would just go to bed at about 8 pm at night on the US east coast and wake up at 2 am to watch the US play. Some games were even played later in the morning than that, so it worked nice for a lot of people. What sucks is when games are played at 2 pm right in the middle of the work day for most people.
I'm not so big on the whole "the nation has to be good enough to get to the WC on their own" argument for who should host. In trying to grow the game and improve the game in some other countries, I'm willing to allow some countries to get in purely on them being the host nation. As long as they can host the event in a reasonable way and accommodate the visitors, I'm fine.