2022 world cup

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"] 

Mega-events is my pet-project at the moment as I''m in the middle of writing a book about them and how no one really wants them anymore. The future will be fights between countries such as England, France, Germany etc who can host the event without providing new stadiums as they are already there and crazy, oil/resource rich countries who have to cash to build everything but can''t provide the ''soft'' infrastructure such as tradition and sporting culture.

 

I expect to see countries such as Turkey, Indonesia, Maylasia and Nigeria getting involved soon and it is only a matter of time until China decide they want a World Cup (they are currently waiting until they have a decent football team). I also wouldn''t be surprised to see Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan get involved also. However, whether FIFA or the Olympics will touch such risky options is another matter. FIFA especially have had a recent history of becoming bored of the same old countries hosting the World Cup and have tried to branch out, this is very much driven by Sepp who loved the adulation he recieved in Africa. I suspect whoever replaces him will want to get back to having relatively ''boring'' location which cause no problems and bring in more money than trying to spread the football to every corner of the planet.

[/quote]

Interesting, Bethnal. I assume one problem is that because bidding is done so far in advance countries have to take a gamble on how their economy is going to look in several years'' time. And you potentially have one governing party taking a decision the consequences of which will fall on the current opposition. Is one likelihood an increase in joint bids, to try to spread the financial load across two countries?
[/quote]

The joint bid was seen as the way forward for countries, until FIFA and UEFA said it wouldn''t support them - causes issues with scheduling and qualification etc. The Olympics is yet to have a joint bid, but that is down to it being city based rather than country based and having a joint bid would be largely impractical (although events such as sailing would be possible to do in a different place).

 

I personally feel that most of FIFA''s Qatar issues have come about due to having the 2018 and 2022 decision in the same bidding time - it opened up too much uncertainty for many nations and removed responsibilty from FIFA members - will Sepp still be with us in 2022? The 2012 Olympics showed how one Government can spend the money winning an Olympics and deliver most of the infrastructure only for another to come along and get the glory. If you were to tell Ken that through his hard work Boris Johnson would enjoy a 10 point boost in popularity via the Olympics he might not have been quite so determined to back the bid.

[Legend Iwan 30]

It''s a fascinating subject. Personally, I can''t see it solely being the pursuit of countries such as England, France etc vying to host these international sporting events. However, they may well be the victors.

While sport stills holds such significant soft power there will always be those willing to host them in an effort to improve their standing. Look at the list of countries over the last five years and those in the next 10 to have held/hold the World Cup, Olympics and Commonwealth Games. On the most part, they are either the four BRIC states from the global south attempting to show off wealth, and failing the majority of the time, or once international leaders attempting to reinstate the position internationally.

The two interesting points for me lie in the further development in global south countries trying to move in on the mega-sport events, and the brawn/brain drain from third world nations to those already developing, as seen with Qatar and a number of African countries.

[RichT - The Biscuit 0]

This won''t affect England, we''ll probably be on the first plane home...

[Dubai Mark 0]

I still to this day cannot understand how it was awarded in the first place based on a summer tournament, regardless of the proposals for air con in stadiums, its beyond believe, and based on that I feel that probably all along within FIFA they have known there would be a strong possibility the dates would have to change.

It was a few months I mentioned hear on a similar thread that I had spoken with the owner of a company over here who are involved in the Air Con of stadiums projects in Qatar. At that time he said he felt it was unlikely they would achieve adequate systems to cool the stadiums (for a game to be played and the crowd) in the extremeties of the summer heat. I will have to get an update if I meet him again soon, which is possible.  

Maybe, a date change may force a winter break on the English Premier League (& other British leagues) long term, something that I have always felt would be of benefit, although I''d see it in January along with a major fixture restructure that takes out the Mickey Mouse Cup early in the season and replaces it with the FA Cup amongst other changes.

That all said, there is obviously no doubt that Qatar can very easily afford to build the stadiums and infrastructure required and deliver it all on time, but despite how lavish and fabulous they are, I struggle to see how it will be a great World Cup in Qatar. I could understand it a little more if it was shared between a few of the Gulf countries (maybe Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Oman) but Qatar thats stretching it a bit..........oh England would get plenty of support though if we qualify, so thats a plus.... 

[Madison 0]

[quote user="swindoncanary"]During the bidding process Qatar were asked about the summer heat, their reply was that it would not be a problem as players and fans would move from air conditioned hotels into a/c cars and coaches and onto the Air Conditioned stadiums. If this is true the tournament should remain in the summer months, if it was untrue Qatar should loose the right to hold it.[/quote]

Totally agree.

[Jonzey 0]

I can''t believe this thread has reached the third page and nobody has mentioned corruption!

Clearly the bids for 2018 and 2022 were accepted as a result of the bribery of those making the decision.

But that isn''t even what annoys me the most. If Blatter et al just admitted the Qatar bid was a joke and the fabled air on stadia had no chance of being built I wouldn''t mind so much. It''s the deception that irritates me. They knew the World Cup couldn''t possibly be held in the summer in Qatar and planned all along to change the dates.

[Legend Iwan 30]

I think Bethnal hinted at your point briefly, Jonzey. There''s no doubting it played a part in the decision-making process, however, without a full and impartial review it''s quite difficult to know the extent to which it occurred.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Isn''t one of the next euro''s held at various stadiums around Europe?

[PurpleCanary 5,558]

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]Isn''t one of the next euro''s held at various stadiums around Europe?[/quote]2020.

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="Jonzey"]I can''t believe this thread has reached the third page and nobody has mentioned corruption!

Clearly the bids for 2018 and 2022 were accepted as a result of the bribery of those making the decision.

But that isn''t even what annoys me the most. If Blatter et al just admitted the Qatar bid was a joke and the fabled air on stadia had no chance of being built I wouldn''t mind so much. It''s the deception that irritates me. They knew the World Cup couldn''t possibly be held in the summer in Qatar and planned all along to change the dates.[/quote]It''s been alluded to in the thread.I think the fact that it hasn''t been outright discussed on the thread though it''s more due to the fact that everyone has basically just assumed that there was a fair amount of hand-greasing for both Russia & Qatar to get in the positions they''re in.I see this as the biggest reason why many nations may not want to bid for future events.

[PurpleCanary 5,558]

[quote user="The ghost of Michael Theoklitos"][quote user="Jonzey"]I can''t believe this thread has reached the third page and nobody has mentioned corruption!

Clearly the bids for 2018 and 2022 were accepted as a result of the bribery of those making the decision.

But that isn''t even what annoys me the most. If Blatter et al just admitted the Qatar bid was a joke and the fabled air on stadia had no chance of being built I wouldn''t mind so much. It''s the deception that irritates me. They knew the World Cup couldn''t possibly be held in the summer in Qatar and planned all along to change the dates.[/quote]It''s been alluded to in the thread.I think the fact that it hasn''t been outright discussed on the thread though it''s more due to the fact that everyone has basically just assumed that there was a fair amount of hand-greasing for both Russia & Qatar to get in the positions they''re in.I see this as the biggest reason why many nations may not want to bid for future events.[/quote]Possibly some posters were wary of following Jonzey''s brave[Y] example of a blanket defamation of all the two-dozen members of Fifa''s executive committee. Generally wealthy people[8o|] with access to expensive lawyers.[8-|]

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

[quote user="Legend Iwan"]I think Bethnal hinted at your point briefly, Jonzey. There''s no doubting it played a part in the decision-making process, however, without a full and impartial review it''s quite difficult to know the extent to which it occurred.[/quote]

 

While there are some unanswered questions over the 2022 bid - there have never been any serious or evidenced allegations over the 2018 bid (apart from Spain, but I''ll mention that later). Russia were favourites from the moment their bid was handed in and no other country came close to beating them.

 

2022 is another issue, with claim and counter-claim being thrown around. The only thing known for certain is Spain and Qatar agreed to trade votes for each other''s bid. Countless media outlets have launched countless investigations into the bids, but apart from the Sunday Telegraph''s original story that Qatar bought two votes nothing further has been uncovered - the source of their information has later denied it and said she fabricated the information after being sacked from the Qatari bid and wanted revenge. Even if Qatar hadn''t purchased two votes and traded another I don''t think it would have made a huge difference to the result - they had an 8 vote after the first round. Many of the FIFA memebers voted for Qatar because they were impressed with the plans and felt a Middle Eastern World Cup would be a landmark moment for FIFA/the World Cup. There are lots of little stories about someone paying someone this and that - but as of yet no firm evidence has been uncovered, personally I think it would be impossible to keep this kind of corruption hidden with so many people involved, and so many people looking.

 

Whilst the stories of air-conned stadium and ''cooling clouds'' etc have proven to be unrealistic, at the time the independent expert advice was it was possible to do these things. Most of the FIFA members voted on the information put infront of them, and they picked Qatar. While of course if Qatar cheated then that is unforgiveable - but don''t be mistaken that they only won the World Cup due to bribery and corruption - they put together a better bid than anyone else and they used to 12 year gap from decision to tournament to their advantage.

[A Gay Schoolboy 0]

Did they mention that the new stadiums would be built by slaves in the original bid?