More shocking than anything is that they might actually decide on moving the 22WC to the winter in just a few weeks. The jist of the article is that Gulati thinks its too soon to decide and reading between the lines, it appears that Blatter has his mind made up and the envelopes of cash from Qatar have been properly distributed. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/s...in-no-hurry-to-decide.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Just move the damn thing to the US. We can host it with like 1 month's notice and it will be the most watched and most attended World Cup in history.
From reading the article Gulati actually sounds like a voice of reason, as he states the various issues that need to be dealt with. From a rational perspective (and yes, I know that FIFA decisions are made without any rational thought whatsoever) he identifies that there are too many questions to take a vote now, and no business decision would be made without those answers. More important than anything else is the legal question of the signed contracts. If they were contingent upon the event being held in the summer, and those contracted parties decided to sue for damages...then Qatar better even have a bigger trunk of cash available to indemnify FIFA for legal action, which could be in the hundreds of millions easily.
The more I follow this crap, the more I believe that everyone is powerless to stop the Qataris from ass raping the sport, and, quite possibly as a result, a real break-down of FIFA as the big leagues/clubs look to wrest the sport away from FIFA's feudal lords, with international soccer as we know it being the likely casualty.
This might be a little tinfoil-hatty, but is it possible that Blatter knows they'll lose this vote and they'll be "forced" to move the WC to a suitable venue?
UEFA and their federations don't realize the power they have to really kabosh FIFA. Totally make FIFA irrelevant if they just simply walk away from Qatar 2022. This totally screws up their leagues if they go to Winter WC. That bribe money is what is keeping them in the FIFA fold. WC without UEFA is no WC worth watching.
Possibly, though it seems like this whole Winter 2022 thing is something Blatter's reputation relies on. IMO he takes a big hit if this is shot down.
Not all UEFA leagues will be negatively effected. And some who are effected won't be as bad as others. The "Important" ones? sure.
I am not so sure. Blatter has managed for this long despite all the scandals, baggage, whatnot. His political acumen is off the charts. He knows how to stay in power. There are only two motives in this vote..... 1. This vote is to kabosh Qatar and say oops, we can't do winter and here ya go USA, which placates UEFA and helps his re-election bid......2. He has the votes for winter and he has dug his heels because the bribe money is too damn good..........He already has the outcome he wants and we will know in 3 weeks what the vote was all about.
Blatter is so blatantly crooked and delusional, it's laughable. Here's to this hopefully being the final nail in his coffin...
EPL, La Liga, Serie A, and Bund could even tell UEFA to go F themselves. They are big enough to form their own league/ federation. TV will flock to where the stars and those Big 4 are where the stars are at.
Not as simple as you make it sound. Players lose their FIFA standing, probably are able to break from their contracts from those teams and other leagues could go sign some of them. There will be push back within each federation. New Leagues and Federations will pop up under FIFA's sanctioning. There would be schisms small and large. It may be good to have FIFA knocked down a peg or two or even replaced all together with a more transparent and much less corrupt organization, but the years it will take to get everything sorted will royally suck for fans of the international game. Again, may be worth it in the long run. I don't know.
If they are going to do a winter World Cup, wouldn't they be better off scheduling December/January with the winter breaks in many leagues? November seems like the worst possible time. I mean shit, it doesn't even sit well with MLS as we have our playoffs then. November seems to be the height of club football as summer leagues are wrapping up, summer to fall leagues are in full swing and fall to spring leagues are starting up.
2022 Winter Olympics are in Jan/Feb 2022. No way the WC can be at the same time. Also I am assuming winter means Nov 2022, which would be more than a year after qualification ends (in October 2021). That is really awkward.
Indeed, they couldn't have mucked this one up any more if they'd planned to. But they got their bags of un-taxable money, and Blatter gets to call the shots and get Noblest Prince of the Known Universe awards everywhere he goes, so it's ok, right? EDIT: A second round of money bags I'll wager, even. The first in 2010 for the actual vote, and now another to move it to November and make it all official.
Well, the qualification timetable can be modified to correspond to the date of the actual WC, so I don't think that is really an issue. But there's plenty of other stuff....
Perhaps it just will start in November but end in December. I imagine they don't want to have the World Cup on two different years, and I bet they would also want to avoid Christmas. So maybe November 21st to December 21st. I know this has nothing to do with why you posted this, but just seeing those words got me thinking. If Gulati manages to delay this vote, great. But if he isn't able to, or if he ends up supporting it, I hope he gets something for his support: putting Copa America 2016 on the FIFA calendar. Random idea, I know.
There is no way Blatter calls for a vote if he doesn't already have the votes. This is a done deal. International football NEEDS to be wrested away from FIFA. UEFA and CONCACAF should walk. Could probably talk Australia into it as well. Stage a rival WC in summer 2022.
Not just talk Australia, but also the Pacific Rim. Japan and South Korea may walk too. After all, both lost as hosts as well, and are tired of the Gulf states running the show in the AFC. If UEFA splits, I would love to see a "PRFC" (Pacific Rim Footballing Confederation). I can see the east Asian states (Like China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand team up with the USA, Canada, Mexico and Central America) to break off of CONCACAF and the AFC to form a huge money federation that instantly rivals UEFA and COMNEBOL. I think if UEFA pulls out, and the carribean nations of CONCACAF decide to throw their lot with Qatar, I think a PRFC split is doable--It immediately takes the political power away from AFC and CONCACAF and now joins a big league block with UEFA. The balance of power will shift and COMNEBOL will probably join the larger powers of the big money leagues, rending FIFA obsolete in the course of months. But yeah, it has come down to this.