Ok, it’s time to revive the dead horse and ride it some more. Trust me, I don’t want to but I have to.
Since the December 2 vote to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup, I have made peace with the decision. While I still believe the country was not the best bid put forward (the U.S. and Australia were better venues in my opinion), I understand the logic and benefits and made my peace with it. I wish them good luck and anticipate an absolutely excellent World Cup.
But it’s FIFA that keeps making my blood boil over this issue.
Today it’s Michael Platini’s interview reported in The Telegraph, where he shares his ideas and hopes for Qatar’s World Cup, among other topics. His thought is that the 2022 World Cup should be a Gulf World Cup, or in his words: “I hope it will be a World Cup of the Gulf. It could be the World Cup of Qatar but played in the Gulf.” This is interesting because the idea has been floated in the media by different soccer personalities but was always rebuked, usually by someone from FIFA saying Qatar has never applied for that change. But now the idea of a World Cup hosted by Qatar but played in other countries seems to be gaining steam.
This is on top of the already brewing movement to move the 2022 World Cup to the winter months. Last week, Sepp Blatter became the most recent person to suggest the event be played in January, and league schedules be adjusted accordingly. This of course has been argued on this site and others, so I don’t want to rehash those arguments. But it seems to me the 2022 World Cup has a general location, but not a set date nor set locations for the matches to take place.
Not to worry, Platini told the press: “When I organised (sic) the World Cup in France we did (things) differently from what we proposed in the bid.” He conveniently forgot to mention France’s huge soccer structure already in place, as well as summer temperatures below 120 degrees Fahrenheit. What these debates tell me is FIFA backed themselves into a corner by picking a location but not having a firm idea of any specific details. Ask any bride-to-be or meeting planner, and they will tell you this is a recipe for disaster.
So should Qatar have its World Cup pulled? Not necessarily; a winter World Cup hosted by the Gulf States but based in Qatar can still be a massive success. But there are so many unknowns and unresolved scenarios that even an event 11 years away is looking like a dubious proposition. So FIFA should take an unprecedented step (again) and do the following: announce after its elections that in December 2014, FIFA will review a new 2022 World Cup bid from Qatar. Qatar’s bid will address the timing and location issues, as well as progress on stadiums and other logistics. After the presentation, the executive committee will have a vote to confirm the bid, and require a supermajority to strip Qatar if it feels their bid is not prepared for the event in eight years. If that occurs, FIFA can have a process to vote on new bids (possibly just have the other finalists resubmit) but it would need its committee to firmly and overwhelmingly reject (say, a 2/3rds vote) the current site.
The positives of this re-vote? This gives FIFA and Qatar four years to decide the basics of the 2022 World Cup and begin to implement its plan. If they cannot do this by 2014, FIFA needs to act in the game’s best interest and consider other venues. This may or may not be the U.S., but that’s not why this is an important issue. This is an important issue because the soccer community needs to know that the 2022 World Cup will take place and be successful, not a drama filled event like the Olympics were in Greece. That way, we can finally figure out who won the 2022 bidding: Qatar, or some ambiguous idea.
What FIFA should do and what FIFA will do rarely have any correlation, so it is irrelevant to ask what FIFA should do.
Yes they should, i’m going to sound bias saying that Australia deserve more votes, but in saying that i’m backing myself up with the fact, we’ve never had it, USA and Japan have both had it in recent few World Cups.
Also saying that i don’t think anyone would care as much if it was either Australia, Japan or United States who got the rights to be the host nation, the unprofessionalism in which the voting was handled finding out 2 hours before the announcement that Qatar had already won it, was suss and i’ll stand by what i believed finding out the results is that they baught the votes for it.
Only good thing to come from this is this joke -Q “Who is Sepp Blatter’s favourite Qatar player?”
-A “Eric Clapton”
There’s no (sic) on organised…that’s how they spell it in Europe.
I can’t see Qatar hosting the football world cup, the Asian cup has been terrible, one of the worst hosting jobs I’ve seen for an event, hardly anyone has turned up to games. Qatar is destroying world football and FIFA. It’s time for the farce to end, Qatar should have it’s hosting rights pulled and given to a nation that actually deserves to host the football world cup. Not a joke like Qatar. Qatar is an international footballing disgrace.
Well if FIFA revokes Qatar the 2022 WC, voters will have to return the payoff they received. God forbid. Predicting. Unledd there is a significant even nothing will happen.
Let’s start a world wide petition asking for FIFA to change the host of the 2022 World Cup! Lets end with this farse! I want the World Cup in a country where my civil freedoms are respected and not having to change schedules to accomodate this silly non-sense!
Sepp Blatter and FIFA have to feel the pressure coming from us, the fans the only and true stockholder of this game!
Bitch got to hell you know northing about Qatar
Some inconvenient facts:
1) The Qatar vote basis expressly said: “June/July”
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2011-01-11-3122823355_x.htm
2) Admission that 2022 vote was for June/July by newly elected ExCo member Jordanian Prince Ali: “I know the issue was raised after the decision to host it in June and July was taken, but we need to ensure it is a success.”
http://www.insideworldfootball.biz/worldfootball/42-news/8770-new-kid-on-the-block-aims-to-bring-transparency-to-fifa
That’s an awesome idea to re-vote. FIFA will be all for it–another round of bribes!
Save the re-votes. Save the bribes. Either give it to the runner up (USA) or give it to the other country that has never had it (Australia).
FIFA is a joke. http://changefifa.wordpress.com
I’m American and if, for whatever reason, WC 2022 is re-allocated to one of the runner up countries i hope it goes to Australia first because they’ve never had one and id love to take my wife there for a WC. Next i’d like it in the US because i’m biased for the US, Japan had it more recently than we did, and the US knows how to put on World Cup! Finally I believe Japan would be able to hoast a great WC as well.
Having been arrested one time for something I didn’t do, I am very much an innocent until proven guilty guy.
I have a question though. As they start to suggest a Winter WCup, which a lot of nations are against…
Where are the people yelling,…..
” I didn’t vote for that ?!?! ”
Why are they not speaking out ?
Legit question from someone that thinks the WCup should be in Qatar because it was voted on fairly, until we have evidence to the contrary, to be there.
A link to an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Qatar bought its bid:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203513204576047681613086452.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
They should not necessarily re-vote, but they should keep a very, very keen eye on developments with the preparations in Qatar. They have 11 years and more money than they no what to do with to get everything ready. That’s plenty of lead time. BUT, come 2020 or even 2018, if FIFA feels that not enough progress has been made then they should move it to either the USA or Australia. Qatar has the potential to put on a spectacular tournament, but if they drop the ball, the US and Australia have the ability to host on very short notice.
I’m fine with a winter world cup as long as the Premier League teams don’t have to give up their players. And it will be better for the MLS not to have the disruption. Maybe they can reduce the training camps to 1 week and then still get Italian, German, French, and Spanish league players. It might actually be a better cup if players are in midseason form and the incompetent national governing bodies get the players for less time.
If it is going to be a gulf cup, they should have let other countries bid accordingly. England could have used the big stadium in Cardiff.
What a shocker.
On the day of MLS Superdraft, the most important pre-season date on the MLS Calendar, a day when even ESPN did a live blog of the event, here at MAJORLEAGUESOCCERTALK, the issue of the day is beating a dead, non-MLS-related horse.
Joe, we typically focus on analyzing stories rather than breaking news stories. Many of us have day jobs and are coming home to sift through the news to bring you our opinion on them. Yesterday’s MLS Talk Podcast had a discussion about the SuperDraft, as I’m sure the next episode will, too. But regarding SuperDraft coverage, we’re not going to pretend that we’re the leading source for that news, by any means. But please have patience and we’ll get to it.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
By no means do I think you should drop everything you cover the superdraft. But it is worth noting that on EPL talk, you guys use “Cover it Live” fairly regularly to discuss live games (and I’m fairly sure that some of these have been weekday afternoons).
Are EPL games more interesting than MLS Superdraft? Of course. But for a blog dedicated to covering MLS, I was surprised to see no coverage on the day of the event. That’s all.
Joe -
The Superdraft article is up and please share your thoughts on your team’s draft. I wanted to do a little analysis over a blow-by-blow. There was a delay on my end getting it up but I had it essentially written last night. Better late than never right?
Robert
Joe, it’s very rare that we do mid-week CoverItLive events on EPL Talk. It’s almost always on a weekend. Are EPL games more interesting than the MLS SuperDraft? To fans of the EPL, yes. To MLS fans, of course not.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Lets face the facts Joe, there are very few people commenting on this site that actually follow MLS soccer like you do.
Go to a soccer related story. nevermind I will do it for you.
About the Draft, 7 comments from me, 1 from you, a few from Dave C.
Hmm, the doesn’t leave many for others.
Surprisingly Roger, Robert and the “I don’t watch MLS but I sure complain about it” crowd didn’t have any.
Look, they’ve got 12 years to work this out and if anything goes wrong before then they can give us a call.
I watch MLS but I don’t do the draft. Yeah, I’ll learn about the Rapids draft choices, but this entertainment, not work. I don’t have to “prepare” for a season (that is two months away).
Should 2022 be voted again? The answer is simple… A big NO. Qatar will be awesome. Different venues, fantastic stadiums, different culture, different days. Say whatever you may say about FIFA, I could care less about the entity itself. Just loved the choices of new countries as hosts.
Might as well. Qatar is nothing but a very small country. Limited space. Desert environment. High risk of heat strokes, especially for the soccer players. It’s hazardous. I suggest they give the 2022 World Cup to the US. The US had everything, compared to Australia and other countries. Qatar sure was really bribing FIFA to let them host the World Cup. What a bunch of cons and thieves! Everyone wanted the USA more often, including those in other countries. Well, if it’s given back to the USA, I hope they replace Atlanta with New Orleans, LA and perhaps, add Chicago in the mix because people in Atlanta are obviously not much into soccer and plus it’s not very diversified at all. Nothing but Black and White Americans who are too much into American football, baseball, and basketball and not very tourist-friendly, either. At least New Orleans provides recreation for tourists and there are French communities as well. It would be a cajun/jazz World Cup with Mardi Gras!
Of course, I wouldn’t imagine Australia hosting World Cup soccer
because of their summer starting in September and most people in
other countries attending school or work at that time. USA would be
a better choice because of their summer starting in June and most
people being out of work or school at that time. Remember the 2000
Sydney Summer Olympics starting in September? Not many people were
paying attention to it.