England World Cup bid stitchup / shambles
I say this as someone who's quite cheerful to be English, if not necessarily proud. I do love England and I support the teams wherever they play, but there is a danger that we do come across as perhaps the tiniest bit entitled when it comes to sport, particularly football.
Sepp Blatter rather snottily called England the 'Motherland of football' yesterday before he handed the 2018 World Cup to Russia, but there's something in that swipe that goes well beyond simple disdain for Becks, Wills and Dave and the bid they presented. You get the sense sometimes that England feel they somehow deserve the World Cup; that it's somehow our turn and that we're entitled to host it, just because Association Football was codified here. There's the sense that we can wheel out two posh guys (though I was pretty irritated by the prince's Sloaney insistence on saying "footbaw" - I want my posh guys to be posh, not to have Tony Blair-like cod blokeyness) and one pretty guy, and that's that, it's in the bag.
It's similar to the way in which England feel they deserve to win every trophy going just by turning up. Sky has convinced us we've got the Best League in the World (tm) so we're still confused every time we get dumped out of a tournament. Blame the manager, blame the players, blame everyone - don't ever stop to consider that there are other countries who are better prepared, better structured, and who simply work harder at their international football. We never stop to think about that; we just assume we should be able to win anything, if we put a team out. That's why people don't like us.
That's not the way these things go, and it's not the way that hosting a major tournament goes either. You have to dance for the guy holding the gun, and then there's still every chance he might just shoot you in the face for the fun of it. You can emphasise the 'technical' superiorities of your bid, or the benefits you'll be giving to the rest of the world, but if you haven't made the right friends, that's just the way it is. Of course there's also the chance that something else has been going on, something that a lot of people suspect is the case with Fifa, but if you don't want to play that game, and you don't want to speak up about your concerns for fear of rocking the boat either, then you had better just accept whatever decision happens with good grace.
And if we don't want to come across as arrogant, insular or entitled, it'll make sense to applaud the victory of Russia and Qatar, scrutinise how they did what they did, and see whether there are any lessons to be learned. There's no reason why international sporting competitions shouldn't go to countries outside the usual suspects, even ones who don't share 'our' values; there's no use in tut-tutting. The clue is in the title of the 'World' Cup, after all. The rather chippy way in which people looked down their noses at India for hosting the Commonwealth Games betrayed a bit of the western panic - how dare these countries be allowed to host international events!
So was it a fair bidding process or a stitch-up? Well, today's papers reflect the sense of injustice and finger-pointing. A bit of sour grapes, or is there really a whiff of corruption about the whole thing? Or maybe it's a bit of both. But still:
The Daily Mail, of course, has its own take on what it might have been that cost us the bid. I can't help feeling that this article is just outright flamebaitery, which is why I'm not linking to it.
The very un-English video, multicultural, diversity, etc etc. You get the general idea. I'm pretty sure that appearing multicultural doesn't do you any harm in an international competition where you're trying to counteract a perception of being seen as arrogant and entitled; but then there may be others who are horrified by the thought of England being multicultural - that's England, whose football team's captain is mixed race, whose players come from a wide range of backgrounds, who are supposed to pretend not to be, somehow. Like I say I'm pretty sure that article is just an attempt to wind people like me up, which of course it's done, but I'm damned if I'm giving the Mail any website traffic because of it. Go and look at the horrors for yourself if you must.
England does, I suppose, have an opportunity now. We're not going to get the World Cup for the next 10-20 years at least, so why not take this chance to try and tackle any corruption there is at the heart of Fifa or the world game? There's nothing to lose and everything to gain if the country that 'invented' football is seen to be at the vanguard of rooting out the rottenness. Or will we just keep our heads down and hope that we get fed a biscuit the next time it's up for grabs? If we do, we can't complain and mutter about a stitch-up the next time we get rejected.
Enough of the sulking, though. We're not entitled to anything. The best way to get the World Cup back would be for England to put out a team capable of actually winning the damned thing. If we can't do that, maybe we don't deserve the tournament.
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December 3rd, 2010 - 08:33
If nuclear missiles were falling from the sky, the Star would still lead on Pete’n'Jordan
December 3rd, 2010 - 12:49
Shocker. Divorced parents with kids put aside their differences and meet up on Christmas Day.
December 3rd, 2010 - 08:44
I think the papers have forgotten that the UK’s hosting the Olympics in 2012. And the Commonwealth Games in 2014. And the Rugby World Cup in 2015. But no, we should be hosting EVERYTHING! We invented sport and used to have an empire, you know.
December 3rd, 2010 - 09:22
But you know those aren’t, like, football, and therefore don’t count. Only football counts, it’s the only sport that matters. Other sports exist only to better show off the magnificence of football. Ask yourself this: would Pete’n'Jord’n'Alex go to a mere Rugby world cup? Of course not! And if they don’t, neither should we.
December 3rd, 2010 - 13:25
The Commonwealth games especially doesn’t count, what with being Scotland.
/English newspaper bias
December 3rd, 2010 - 09:26
“And if we don’t want to come across as arrogant, insular or entitled, it’ll make sense to applaud the victory of Russia and Qatar”
Russia, yes. Qatar, no. If I may be permitted to repost a rant I made on a football forum?
—-
Qatar. A country who FIFA’s own technical panel judged as unfit. Let’s look at the merits of Qatar a minute.
One city.
One airport.
One stadium.
12 more stadia “to be built”
In the middle of a desert
To host a tournament in JULY
Using mass air-con technology that’s not actually been invented.
A population that will increase by 11% during the World Cup, just with travelling support.
A country whose last major human rights breakthrough was “to allow women to drive (with written consent from male next of kin)”
A country in which homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment or lashes.
And in which the consumption of alcohol is punishable by the same.
A country where you cannot enter if you have an Israeli passport
The fact that said country has been handed the tournament is ludicrous. But hey, it went to a vote, right?
Right. Which is why, for the first time, the winners of the next TWO world cups were announced. Conveniently giving Qatar time to build these stadia (and presumably the attendant hotels, transport and airport). The rules were changed so that in the unlikely event that a country would need to build the fucking infrastructure to host a tournament, they’d have plenty of time.
And then, lo and behold, a country that needs time to build the infrastructure to host a tournament wins.
It’s a fix, right? Or if it’s not a fix, the stars have aligned in Qatar’s favour. So let’s go for the most likely reason for Qatar getting a world cup, and being notified an incredible 12 years in advance:
Qatar were always going to get the World Cup. FIFA had decided beforehand, and allowed the USA/Australia/Korea to waste money on bids for a tournament that could only go to Qatar due to a previous arrangement.
Whether that arrangement was on the promise of these ludicrous pop-up, air-conditioned, Space Nineteen Ninety Fucking Nine stadia, or on a fat barrel of oil money doesn’t really matter. FIFA conducted a rigged vote so that a country with no ability to host the world’s second largest sporting event could get it.
FIFA rigged a vote. Took a bribe and rigged a vote.
—
Apologies for length, but I was quite riled up by this.
December 3rd, 2010 - 12:04
Top rant!
December 3rd, 2010 - 13:23
I’m not commenting on the vote – or the incredible irony of the Tabs complaining about the BBC exposing corruption and then complaining about corruption…
The way FIFA works does appear to be weird – I’m no expert but hasn’t Blatter always been a nutter? And it’s not actually a democracy…
Aside from all of that – I actually quite like Qatar and Russia getting the tournaments! I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to party on the streets until I’m in my 40s and we actually have a team with decent structure and tactical ability (and a consistent defense).
But don’t you think this’ll be quite interesting? Freezing cold and very hot countries, different abilities required, shake up football? Move money and opportunity from very rich countries to countries that could do with becoming part of the world stage? Particularly the Russia tournament will be fantastic! People might travel to parts of the world they’ve never seen or experienced! Football might bring people of different nationalities and races together!
I’m not trying to wind you up I promise, and I’m not trying to put words in A.V.’s mouth, but can’t we just be happy for other countries to win it and enjoy ourselves? Wouldn’t that be nice?
December 3rd, 2010 - 14:04
Actually, the 1974, 1978 and 1982 World Cups were all awarded at the same meeting in 1966, meaning Spain had 16 years’ notice!
December 3rd, 2010 - 14:55
I humbly stand corrected.
December 3rd, 2010 - 15:47
You can drink alcohol in Qatar, every big hotel has a bar full of booze and residents (a very large proportion of whom are ex-pats, many British) can buy and drink it in their own homes.
I don’t know where you got the women driving thing from but they do have the honour of being the first middle eastern country to have a female MP a good few years ago.
It’s not perfect but it’s one of the more liberal Arab countries
December 3rd, 2010 - 17:52
Sepp Blatter stated some seven years ago that for the World Cup to be just that, it had to go into new unchartered territory to make it a truly inclusive global game.
I scoffed at his statement at the time…..well, who didn’t?
Blatter is the the head of a highly politicised, multi-billion pound corporate institution, and most of us surely by now are well aware of what most corporate institutions are full off (hot air/bullshit/corrupt cretins)
Still, i owe Mr Blatter an apology. He actually deliverd what he said on the tin.
This year the African continent held its first ever World Cup- with no major hiccups- despite the usual patronising, scaremongering hysterics of our beloved free press.
The most succesful nation in World Cup history will host the 2014 tournament for the first time in 64 years and both Russia and the Arab world will get their own tournaments for the first time also.
Granted, it will be a tall order for Qatar to pull it off and i really hope they do, but even if they dont i believe contingency plans are already in place if they fall behind in their scheduling. FIFA may be many things (and probably are) but they’re not stupid. There are already rumours circulating from Zurich that if it becomes patently clear that Qatar won’t be fully ready in time they’ll just hop across their southern border and let Saudi Arabia take some/all of the weight. The main priority being that the Middle-East will get to host its first ever World Cup, whether its in Qatar or not.
The main persuasive argument from the Qatari bidding team- apart from the legacy aspect- was that a vote for Qatar was a vote for the entire region.
The other candidates for hosting 2022 didn’t have a prayer from the outset, not because of vote rigging or bribery- the answer to why they lost is far simpler. Japan and Korea hosted the World Cup as recently as 2002 in a succesful joint bid; a positive step and the right choice at the time, in my view. Having hosted the World Cup so recently they were nonstarters from the beginning.
The majority of the populations of both the U.S and Australia fall into two camps with regards to their attitudes towards football (or ‘soccer’ as they both call it….for fucks sake). The first is disinterest/ignorance of the fact that their country is even hosting the World Cup (USA 94′ anyone?) or what the World Cup even is. The second group consists of fans and media commentators of ‘indigenous’ sports who have nothing but outright disdain and contempt for football (particurlarly in the U.S)- unlike in the Middle-East where the passion for the game amongst the masses is obvious.
Football in both The U.S and Australia ranks FIFTH in their sporting hierachies, behind the likes of aussie rules, both codes of rugby, cricket, gridion (i’m not calling it you know what- its a bastardisation of the English language), ice hockey, basketball and silly-girls rounders….sorry, baseball; again , the opposite is the case for Qatar and the surrounding region.
Human Rights? Well….. on that issue theres no contest. The U.S and Australia are world renowned for being squeeky clean and totally unblemished with regards to their Human Rights records, both domestically and internationally………as clean and as unblemished as pigs in shit!
All we are saying is give Qatar a chance.
December 3rd, 2010 - 19:00
You do realise that even though football is not huge in the USA, the 1994 World Cup had the highest average attendance per game of any World Cup?
December 6th, 2010 - 10:07
That would have nothing to do with the relatively large Italian, Irish, Hispanic etc immigrant communities then, whose cultural identity and passion with and for football are well known and longstanding?
The majority of the population either didn’t know, give a shit or were openly hostile towards the World Cup- which is pretty much their attitude to anything that isn’t perceived to be ‘American’, like ‘Soccer’.
December 6th, 2010 - 13:39
I don’t really care who attended the games (last I checked those immigrant communities were Americans), the fact is they were well attended and it was a great World Cup. Average attendances of almost 70,000? Frankly who cares then if many people in the country care little about it. Any World Cup in USA and Australia would be very well done.
December 3rd, 2010 - 10:11
I wonder how many people who are now frothing at the mouth (and there’s a lot of that on various football forums) over England not getting the World Cup have seen the list of ludicrous demands FIFA has issued to the prospective countries. I like my football as well as the next man, but ever since those demands were leaked in the Dutch press a while ago, I’ve been very happy that the Dutch bid didn’t have a ghost of a chance.
Moreover, it seems the sense of entitlement you so rightly point out blinds people to the fact that visiting the World Cup might even be a bigger exprience when sampling it abroad. I went to the 1998 World Cup in France and the 2000 Euros in my own country, and the former easily trumped the latter. That has of course in part to do with the World Cup simply being a bigger event, but it’s also more special to visit cities and stadiums you normally just don’t go to.
I would tend to agree with Andy that FIFA has put the possibility in place wherein a country like Qatar could get the World Cup, but contrary to him, I see nothing sinister in that. I see nothing wrong with taking the Cup to places it’s never been before, and given the amount of money available and the time they have in preparation, there’s every chance they’ll do a fine job.
Also, according to the Daily Mail England apparently didn’t get it due to a video containing darkies AND a stitch-up in favour of Russia. Surely they can’t have it both ways?
December 3rd, 2010 - 13:12
I agree with Andy, the “we’re arrogant” thing might have been an issue if this had been a fair bidding process, but it clearly wasn’t. As evidenced by Qatar being picked ahead of the US, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Qatar! A better host than those places! Incredible, FIFA have hit a new low.
The 2022 vote has riled me up far more than England losing 2018.
December 3rd, 2010 - 14:41
@Alex, why so riled up by Qatar winning? The Middle East has never hosted a World Cup ever, whereas of the other countries bidding for 2022, USA had it in 1994 and South Korea/Japan shared it in 2002. Football is the most popular sport in Qatar, unlike the other main contender, Australia, where it arguably comes behind Aussie Rules, Rugby and Cricket in popularity.
It’s also worth noting the shrillness with which Qatar has been described as a ‘mediaeval kingdom’ and a ‘theocracy’. Thank god we don’t have anything like that, with our Queen and our very own Church of England, eh? By the standards of its neighbours Qatar is a fairly moderate state, and all those bemoaning the strictness of its laws on alcohol are conveniently forgetting that as part of their bid they’ve recognised that other cultures do drink alcohol and so have relaxed the laws on alcohol in certain designated areas. Do you think the UK government would relax it’s laws on controlled substances that other cultures deem perfectly acceptable?
December 3rd, 2010 - 15:04
English football fans whingeing about corruption, priceless.
I believe the line is – “it’s a mistake and it’ll all even itself out”.
If only mike ‘honest’ riley were in charge of FIFA, eh, then we could be sure that it’s all above board.
December 3rd, 2010 - 15:15
The article in the Mail is just……..well, awful.
I even felt compelled to hold my nose and join the comments to post a link to the WINNING London Olympic presentation – which shares more than a FEW similarities with the World Cup presentation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4661209.stm
(My comment won’t get posted anyway – or if it does with be red arrowed to within an inch of its life – which I deserve because I’m a bleeding heart leftie and have no business spoiling everyone else’s fun on the DM website)
Anyway – awful. Truly. Awful.
December 3rd, 2010 - 15:46
GOD I am glad we didn’t get it. The World Cup is hard enough to bear when it’s being hosted halfway round the world. If it was hosted here, I think I’d move.
December 4th, 2010 - 17:33
I agree entirely with this.
December 3rd, 2010 - 19:39
Nice spot of casual racism from the Mirror about Qatar.
December 3rd, 2010 - 21:27
You have to dance for the guy holding the gun, and then there’s still every chance he might just shoot you in the face for the fun of it.
Hang on, do they do that in football these days? Is that part of the offside rule or something?
December 3rd, 2010 - 22:02
Yeah have to disagree with this post to be honest. I’m all for expanding boundaries and wouldn’t have given it to England either but that Qatar got the 2022 finals smacks of something being very wrong. It was labelled high-risk, its infrastructure is nowhere near the standard required to host the competition and they’re going to dismantle the new stadia they build after the World Cup has finished.
Honestly though the Daily Mail “LOOK AT THIS VIDEO THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE HOW UN-ENGLISH!!!” article nearly made me vomit when I read it.
December 4th, 2010 - 15:34
There’s no doubt in my mind that FIFA is corrupt, there’s plenty of evidence and it’s something I’ve thought for a long time before, I’m talking over a decade, and I was first alerted to it when England were the beneficiary.
There is also no doubt that the english media didn’t help our chances, much like they do in the reporting of the performances of our national side.
The whole thing stinks. And it has nothing to do with entitlement.
December 5th, 2010 - 15:15
@Ben Objections to Qatar:
- Too small
- The gigantic environmental cost of the whole endeavour (like air conditioning stadiums, for example).
- The shabby treatment of migrant labourers in Qatar, who’ll be building these monstrosities.
- The fact that aside from “liking the Premier League” the middle east has little football culture of it’s own.
- Qatar has 50,000 hotel rooms. 200,000 people from abroad went to South Africa, for instance. 70,000 from England alone went to Germany 2006. It’s not cut out to deal with a World Cup.
- 50C heat in June/July. You can’t air condition a country. It’ll be grim for anyone visiting.
- Complete lack of infrastructure to deal with these numbers of people.
- The fact that FIFA’s bent it’s own rules regarding the number of stadiums allowed in a single city. They were irritated by England wanting to use three in London, but Qatar are allowed to host basically all the games in Doha?
- 50C heat in June/July. Again. This should have sunk the bid from the start, laughable that it was even considered.
And frankly, I don’t believe that nations “deserve” to host World Cups because there’s never been one in that place before. I think World Cups should go to the nations that can provide the best experience for visiting fans and teams. Which clearly isn’t Qatar in this case.
So there you go, a load of objections and not one mention of Islam, cultural differences, or lies about alcohol being banned. (It’s not, it’s just very tightly controlled. There’s a difference.)
December 6th, 2010 - 10:14
Simple solution to your own personal objections- don’t go.
December 7th, 2010 - 19:14
In response to your objection the “Aside from liking the Premier League the middle east has little football culture of its own” I would like to cite wikipedia:
“Football is the most popular sport in the country closely followed by cricket. The Qatar Under 20 national football team finished second in the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship after a 4-0 defeat to Germany in the final.
The Asian Football Confederation’s 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals will be held in Qatar in January 2011. It will be the fifteenth time the tournament has been held, and the second time it has been hosted by Qatar, the other being the 1988 AFC Asian Cup.”
You also seem to harp on considerably about the temperature. It’s worth noting that 50 degrees is the highest it gets, a little like describing Britain’s summer temperatures as 38C because it was that high once before (in 2003 if you’re interested).
As for the lack of infrastructure (by which I guess you mean hotels) They’ve got 12 years – I’m sure that’ll be enough time for them to build more