World Cup Bid

[Svlad Cjelli]

Agreed, except the bit about Platini. UEFA have no say in any of this - it's not a hierarchy of FA > UEFA > FIFA as many people think.

UEFA is actually just a competition organiser, they aren't in the middle at all, and can't influence FIFA directly. All their member associations belong to FIFA too, but UEFA has no authority therein.

UEFA can certainly exert a bit of pressure on it's members to work together for the good of Euorpean football though. To totally dismiss its relevance and importance is being a bit naive isn't it?

I'm not trying to totally dismiss it - just saying that any influence it has is indirect only. Especially when you consider that UEFA members can't ever agree amongst themselves.

[Maguire]

In answer to Maguire,none.
So that puts me 1-0 up whereas in your opinion presumably knowing all of those lovely people who have never puked all over the streets of the very Ibiza that you mentioned you would assume a 1-0 lead.
Whateva-not worth discussing really is it so shall we say 1-1?

You only know one person then?

I prolly know about three who are like that (Hugo Boss, TMD, and Thames) and tonnes who aren't.

[Hoop Blah]

Being reported that England's second vote came from Issa Hayatou, president of teh African Federation. Amazing when you consider he was one of the "Panorama Three."

Pretty amazing really, but I think it shows how little impact the Panorama and Times saga probably had. Saying that, we were supposed to get Warners as well weren't and that would mean he ditched us.

[Oi Oi Saveloy]

Russia, I can understand getting the World Cup For a few reasons;

1.They have never hosted it before
2. It will bring huge economic development in terms of infrastructure to their country.
3 The first World Cup in Eastern Europe.
4.Plenty of cash to provide excellent facilties.

Qatar....can only think it could be down to cash, there are no other reasons to give them the World Cup. If the U.A.E states had done a joint bid, then that would have made for an impressive World Cup with some great venues. Qatar on it's own could be a disaster waiting to happen. Keeping rival fans apart will be a huge challenge due to the size of the country. The heat will be an issue, despite the air conditionaing in the stadiums, and I don't hold out much hope for the England fans adhering to Islamic laws...Expect a fair few to come back completely lashed.....but this time without the hangover.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Being reported that England's second vote came from Issa Hayatou, president of the African Federation. Amazing when you consider he was one of the "Panorama Three."

Pretty amazing really, but I think it shows how little impact the Panorama and Times saga probably had. Saying that, we were supposed to get Warners as well weren't and that would mean he ditched us.

Corrupt charlatan in not keeping his word shocker.

[Einstein agogo]

Russia, I can understand getting the World Cup For a few reasons;

1.They have never hosted it before
2. It will bring huge economic development in terms of infrastructure to their country.
3 The first World Cup in Eastern Europe.
4.Plenty of cash to provide excellent facilties.

Qatar....can only think it could be down to cash, there are no other reasons to give them the World Cup. If the U.A.E states had done a joint bid, then that would have made for an impressive World Cup with some great venues. Qatar on it's own could be a disaster waiting to happen. Keeping rival fans apart will be a huge challenge due to the size of the country. The heat will be an issue, despite the air conditionaing in the stadiums, and I don't hold out much hope for the England fans adhering to Islamic laws...Expect a fair few to come back completely lashed.....but this time without the hangover.

it's a poxy little place , they will need to build maybe 3 stadium of lights 2 old Traffords and a Wembley and who the oxf*rd is going to use them afterwards???? It's total madness

[TFF]

All the fault of the BBC









Blatter
Birmingham City Fans
Corruption

[ZacNaloen]

Facts > Anecdotes

What facts junior Snowball?
One poxy little survey?
Hardly substantive.

The opinion of over 4000 people collated into an easy to read list is significantly more substantive than the personal experiences of one grumpy old man.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

I think we are generally hated as a nation - seen as arrogant know it alls and the lager lout element is still around in all the holiday resorts - it's sometimes embarrassing to be english quite honestly.

the standard of our football is also complete dog - because of the money element and risk of going down the premier league is all about pace strength and fitness and little else.

[leon]

LOL. How much do we hear on the news about the problems in Britain with drunks etc yet as soon as someone wants us to not get drunk in public we are upset!

There are designated drinking areas already and they have said they will also relax the laws further.

Not many on here will take notice of you Soggy,so many have their preconceived ideas of everything outside of the UK.
Already everyone else is more corrupt than us-yes,in a year when the majority of our MPs have been diddling their expenses including our current prime minister.

Ours was the best bid-did everybody read all of the others and ours and make comparisons or do we take whatever is printed in The Sun as fact?

Ours was the best presentation today-did they all listen in depth to the others?

As for Beckham (I won't disappoint you Foxy)-does he not realise that people in other countries have grandads?
And as for the I won this,I won that,I won the other, I got us to the world cup-I thought it was a team game Becks.

As for Johnny come lately Cameron and a member of our Royal Family-I'm not sure the rest of the world is really interested.

I think English people ought to ask themselves why these other countries don't like us?
On the face of it the bid should have been a shoe-in on historical grounds because of it being 44 years during which Germany for example have had it twice and we are a footballing nation and the venue was to be in Europe.

Face up to it, a lot of the rest of the world don't like us and it's hardly surprising when you see our folk when they step away from our little island and behave as if they own the world.
We are the Milwall of Europe and many of our people don't even want to be in Europe unless they want to go there on holiday.
Oh well all the Little Englanders can blame Sepp Blatter,FIFA,BBC,Sunday Times et al because somebody has to be blamed.

absolutely spot on

[ZacNaloen]

It's just easier to think we didn't get it because they don't like us isn't it?

[leon]

It's just easier to think we didn't get it because they don't like us isn't it?

not me and Victor we're lovely - it's the rest of you

[Victor Meldrew]

Facts > Anecdotes

What facts junior Snowball?
One poxy little survey?
Hardly substantive.

The opinion of over 4000 people collated into an easy to read list is significantly more substantive than the personal experiences of one grumpy old man.

I would guess that during my lifetime I have probably met more than 4,000 Brits abroad so maybe my opinion is of at least equal merit and is solely from a British perspective.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Face up to it, a lot of the rest of the world don't like us and it's hardly surprising when you see our folk when they step away from our little island and behave as if they own the world.

Oh well all the Little Englanders can blame Sepp Blatter,FIFA,BBC,Sunday Times et al because somebody has to be blamed.

A nice little rant, but it rather ignores the detail that most of the world hasn't ever seen a "lager lout" on a package holiday or stag night.

The behaviour of the typical Englishman abroad isn't likely to have been a factor at all. The behaviour of the typical FA official, on the other hand, might be, but by all accounts they very deliberately didn't go down the "home of football, so we deserve it" route. I'm sure there is historical antipathy towards England, but I'm sure not "playing the game" explains our lack of votes more than anything else.

[Maguire]

the standard of our football is also complete dog - because of the money element and risk of going down the premier league is all about pace strength and fitness and little else.

Better than Russian and Qatari football

[Wycombe Royal]

I just had a look at the Qatar bid and 6 of the stadiums will be in one city - Doha. Only one other city has a large population. The others are around 30,000 population. That's like Woodley being a host city.

Oh and then there is the other host city that they haven't even built yet - it is still a work in progress but will apparently have a population of around 250k by 2022.

Madness.

[Jackson Corner]

It's just easier to think we didn't get it because they don't like us isn't it?

Which is why we should never have botherd in the first place 15 million for one vote what a waste of money. Including the 06 bid that's over 25 million spent on arse licking FIFA for nothing. They said back then our stadiums were not up to scratch and gave it to Germany who only had one all seater stadium at the time?

[soggy biscuit]

A certain HNA'er would have been e-felching Cameron had England won claiming it was all down to the Prime Minister, odd that he is not commenting on Cameron now that we didn't win.

[Royal Rother]

Stan Collymore and the usually fairly sober Mark Saggers pulling no punches on TalkSport. Blatter's lawyers might be interested in what they've been saying.

They are in no doubt whatsoever that the whole process is corrupt, from start to finish.

[Tails]

... I don't hold out much hope for the England fans adhering to Islamic laws...Expect a fair few to come back completely lashed.....but this time without the hangover.

England team, shirley?

Well FIFA wanted to emphasise the need to provide a legacy, and now Blatter has that to dine out on - at least he got to 'oversee' the spread of the world cup to new provinces.

Probably the best outcome for a new host nation [referring to 2018] rather than those that have seen a lot of the major tournaments on their front door. Disappointing from an Englishman's point of view, having seen the reports by FIFA regarding the technical excellence of the English bid and being rewarding with a paltry vote [exclude Geoff] is gutting - call that sour grapes if you will - but that says more about the chip on your shoulder than the chip on mine. Equally, despite the financial mess of SA, it could be considered noble for FIFA to reject the temptation to choose the 'most profitable' option.

It is a shame, however, that [yes, hardly unbiased Soggy] reporting surrounding Russia, its culture and apparent attitude toward certain topics appears less then savoury. This ^ is more of an issue for me than any stat about how many times the English have hosted the WC in comparison to Germany, Qatar or the Isle of Man.

If the English aren't allowed to use the concepts of 'deserving' and 'our turn' then neither can the likes of Qatar or Russia - thus it should be about viability along with the notion of spreading football across the globe to new places and people.