The investigations into FIFA’s corrupt practices continue, and the attention has again been focused on American Chuck Blazer.

Andrew Jennings, one of soccer’s most outspoken reformers, released a new detailed report yesterday with a laundry list of accusations against Blazer and his lavish lifestyle.  Jennings claims the FBI has now begun investigating the FIFA official’s bank accounts for some very suspicious payments and for failure to report income, a very serious charge that the federal government does not take lightly in high-profile cases.  When we had left the FIFA/CONCACAF drama, Blazer had outed CONCACAF’s Jack Warner for bribery on behalf of FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hamman.  According to Jenning’s report, it seems as though Blazer was more involved with Warner’s wrong-doing than previously understood, if the reports are accurate.

Some of the story’s more juicy details include:

• Blazer received (and repaid) a payment of $250,000 from the Caribbean Football Union, which was controlled by Warner and which Blazer claims Warner was illegally writing checks from the bank account.  This was in addition to large payments made to Blazer in September 2010.
• Blazer allegedly held a retreat in his $3 million apartment at the Reef Atlantis Paradise Island resort last month for Caribbean officials sympathetic to him.  He allegedly owns the resort property which is paid for through a series of companies connected to a Nassau bank where he supposedly has an account.
• He receives a ton of commissions from regional sports marketing companies with connections to Warner, including making $2 million allegedly off one such contract.
• Two of his children have worked for him, including his son who currently works as CONCACAF’s chief medical officer which pays $7,000 a month.
• Including an apartment above the CONCACAF offices in Trump Towers, Blazer has property in North Carolina (farmhouse) and Miami (waterfront apartment).
• Most stomach churning for me, Jennings uncovers a picture of Blazer and his girlfriend chatting with Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

All kidding aside, these are serious accusations that cast new light on the CONCACAF drama that occurred around the World Cup 2022 bid.  Jennings is known for his dogged investigation into the bribed FIFA executive committee members and subsequent exposé which some have blamed for England not even advancing past the first round in the 2018 World Cup voting.  His level of detail is also in-depth and while some of it can be dismissed by supporters as unsubstantiated, his lavish lifestyle is disconcerting.

Of course, this is not the first time we’ve heard of Blazer’s antics, but the fact that the Feds are involved takes it to a whole new level.  The FBI loves to investigate financial crimes and has a high-profile history of successfully prosecuting them.  Expect during the upcoming months to hear drips of leaked information about Blazer and some more of his interesting monetary expenditures, but the biggest take-away from this exposé is kind of what we expected: there’s allegedly more to the story of Chuck Blazer’s attempted FIFA clean-up.

Soccer fans this weekend saw the best of the beautiful game pushed aside by the worst.  As Barcelona were dismantling Manchester United with passing and play that was textbook in perfection, the drip-drip-drip of allegations coming out of FIFA’s headquarters in Switzerland was deafening.  Mohamed bin Hamman withdrew from the FIFA president’s race under the dark cloud of suspicion that he had tried to bribe voters in his election campaign.  Then pictures were released allegedly showing (I kid you not) a case with $40,000 in cash that associates of CONCACAF delegate Jack Warner and bin Hamman delivered to a Caribbean delegate to buy their vote in the election.

Then the hits kept coming.  FIFA’s secretary general Jerome Valcke had to deny a report that he wrote an email to Warner saying that bin Hammam thought “you can buy FIFA as they bought the WC” (WC standing for World Cup).  bin Hammam is the head of the Qatar delegation, and Valcke had to issue a statement saying that, while he did write the email, he did not mean to imply the 2022 World Cup had been bought; Qatar issued a similar statement.  Meanwhile, current FIFA president Sepp Blatter (who has his own ethics charges against him) gave a bizarre press conference claiming that none of these reports constituted a crisis and that tomorrow’s election for FIFA president (where he is the only candidate) should continue.

Got that?  Basically, it looks like FIFA corruption (which has always been guessed at) is coming to light at a bad time; upwards of 10 of the 32 members of the sport’s governing body are under investigation for various corruption charges.  The British English and Scottish FAs have publicly called for tomorrow’s vote for FIFA president to be delayed, and the British English FA has said it will abstain from voting due to the current ethics situation. [note - apologies to English and British friends for misidentifying FA.  Mistakes were made]

The United States, which finished second to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, should feel even more aggrieved than the English that their bid was possibly undermined by corruption, probably even by their own federation’s representative.  So how should USSF and Sunil Gulati respond to the controversy?  Should they follow the English, call for a delay in the election, and refuse to vote unless the current situation is satisfactorily resolved?

Here are my pros and cons, and please vote in the poll below:

Yes, the U.S. should follow the English and publicly condemn FIFA

• The U.S. potentially has the biggest reason to be aggrieved by this corruption.  While the U.K. also lost out on a World Cup (2018), their vote was not even close.  The United States, with a few votes swung their way, would have won the contest for such a lucrative and important event.  If those votes were swayed illegally, then the U.S. has every right to be angry and should be a leader in trying to get to the bottom of the alleged corruption.
• A few months after the results were announced, speculation was rife on the Internet that if Qatar was not ready to host the World Cup by a certain date, the U.S. would be a very viable fall-back option.  Of course FIFA would do everything in its power to prevent their gamble from failing, so this was never a really viable option.  However, if these allegations are true and Qatar and its allies bought the World Cup, FIFA (assuming a change of heart) would want to distance itself from such corruption.  What better way to do that then to give the 2022 World Cup to an outspoken reform proponent – the U.S.  It’s a stretch, but it may be a gamble worth taking.
• An important factor to consider is FIFA’s sponsorship, the heart of their corporate enterprise.  Already, some of the sponsors like Coca-Cola and Visa has expressed discontent with the current process.  These are two American-based companies; if the U.S. came out publicly against current FIFA practices, then their threats may seem more legitimate and give both the corporations and the U.S. a stronger leverage point.
• What if FIFA falls?  Not in the literal sense, but what if the reformers win and a cleaning process begins in FIFA headquarters?  The U.S., by coming out now, can claim to be leaders with England and Scotland of the soccer reform movement.

No, the U.S. cannot afford to condemn FIFA and Sepp Blatter

• Right now, the big names calling for an election delay and reforms are England and Scotland.  England is despised by FIFA leadership right now due to their investigations that started the controversy, but England will always be the country that invented soccer.  As such, they will always be an important part of the soccer landscape.  The U.S. is still an upstart whose soccer league is at best the fourth most important sport in the country.  Coming out in front of the reform movement now could seriously harm any progress the U.S. has made in the international soccer community.  In short, gambling and winning may give a very good payoff, but gambling and losing would be a huge loss.
• It’s a moot point.  The FIFA elections will be held tomorrow, Blatter will be named president for a fourth term, and any consequences will take place quietly and in the future.  The U.S. cannot make an impact on the process, so why lose any future clout just to make a point that will go no where?

We are the champions!

Recently we’ve shared that various soccer luminaries such as Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson has advocated a spring-to-fall schedule change in advance of the 2022 World Cup.  Now we find out that UEFA itself is advancing well past the thinking stage.

The British press is reporting that the English Premier League and Bundesliga are gearing up to fight a UEFA (specifically, Michel Plantini) plan to implement a spring-to-fall schedule permanently for UEFA member leagues and alter the qualification calendar for international events.  The plan, which would hypothetically be put in place by 2015, supposedly echoes a proposal Plantini wrote for Sepp Blatter and FIFA in 1998 to change the calendar then, but was scrapped because of opposition from Italy and Spain.

All European leagues would run their schedule from mid-March to the end of October.  Qualification for the World Cup or European Championship would take place from November to mid-December, with the final tournaments played mid-January through February.  The articles also reveal that FIFA officials have been planning for a winter World Cup in 2022, despite their assertions otherwise.  In fact, it looks like Qatar was always going to be a winter World Cup, with the executive committee moving forward with January 2022 planning since the December 2 vote.

My first thought on reading this is I am glad UEFA is planning to make the move three years before the Russian World Cup, where I am sure a winter World Cup will be….quite pleasant.  But it seems like the movement toward a winter 2022 Cup (and consequently a spring-to-fall schedule) has been in the works for at least the past 45 days, probably more.  So anything FIFA has said so far about the 2018 and 2022 bid process has to be somewhat doubted if they’ve lied about the Qatar scheduling.

My second thought is that the major European leagues would never go for this.  I think some of the smaller European leagues (I’m looking at you Scotland) would fall in-line with UEFA, but this would be a major headache to the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue Un.  It would be especially bad for Italy and Spain where summer temperatures approach 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

But let’s assume UEFA is 100% in favor of this and forces all their leagues to switch to spring-to-fall.  All of the sudden, little stubborn MLS would be a trend setter in the soccer world.  The same nation whose president was told to his face that they needed to conform to the rest of the world’s schedule would now be the one to whom the world would conform.  Quite a nice vindication for Don Garber and USSF who have remained unmoved by the international pressure.

What are some of the other consequences of a European schedule switch?

• No more Landon Donovan to Everton loans for a few months.  If MLS and UEFA play at the same time, American stars cannot go to Europe for a few months and return for the second half of the MLS season.  While this would alleviate some of the Beckham transfer drama, my fear would be that big name Americans would just go to Europe and not play in MLS at all during their peak years.  This could exacerbate the league’s talent drain.
• Fewer tours of the U.S. by big European clubs.  Manchester United and Barcelona probably wouldn’t want to do a 12-day tour in the winter with the chance of their matches being snowed out.  So either they would tour the South (excellent for Miami and Dallas) or limit themselves to only one or two stops.  And if international qualifiers are occurring, then the biggest clubs would be reduced to their second team even more so than they are now.

I will believe a UEFA spring-to-fall when I see it, but we have definitely learned two things from this story: the fall-to-spring schedule is not sacrosanct and FIFA’s pronouncements cannot be trusted.

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.

Two of the more controversial things in the soccer world combined yesterday for an early Christmas present to both soccer bloggers and Don Garber.

In an interview with Arsenal Magazine (and reported on The Telegraph website), Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger complained about fixture back-up due to inclement weather and how it impacts his squad (and other clubs too of course).  For those who don’t follow EPL, a number of matches were canceled last weekend due to snow and a bunch more may be canceled on the popular Boxing Day weekend.  While most EPL pitches are heated, many of the matches are canceled over concerns for fan safety.

The EPL has built-in cancellation dates for these matches, but Wenger is concerned that clubs (like Arsenal) who play in multiple tournaments will face a backlog of matches later in the season, putting title-competing clubs at a disadvantage to teams who only compete in one league or competition.  In response to a question about a possible winter World Cup in 2022, he not only said it would not be a bad idea, but the world soccer calendar should change because of it:

“That [the heat in Qatar] is a big problem.  They have spoken about maybe having the World Cup in the winter. Why not? I’m not against that at all. But I think overall, in the whole world, football should be played between February and November, and then you could organise (sic) it for winter.”
Now the Wenger schedule would be different than the current MLS schedule – matches would begin in February and players would have a long summer break to recuperate from fixture congestion.  But it is not a coincidence that this was the lead story on the MLS website this morning.  I suspect that MLS officials will continue to highlight this kind of support for a spring-to-fall schedule as the possibility of a January 2022 World Cup is considered, and Wenger will not be the only major figure to suggest a schedule change.

Does Arsene Wenger’s support for a February-to-November schedule change your opinion on spring-to-fall scheduling?

Just as the outrage of the U.S. losing the World Cup to Qatar seems to be settling down, Sepp Blatter and FIFA decided to open the controversy back up again.  In an interview with journalists in Qatar during a visit to the Club World Cup, the FIFA president said that the organization was considering holding the 2022 World Cup during the winter, in response to concerns about the heat during matches.  “FIFA’s job is to have a World Cup that protects the players so we take note of the recommendations and go through the list of requirements,” he said.

FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke also addressed the issue, pointing out that holding the World Cup in the winter could help FIFA award the event to countries that previously would be unable to host.  Says Valcke: “Why not? It means you open the World Cup to countries where they can never play it in June and July because it’s never the right period of time… it would be a solution to open the organization of the World Cup to a number of countries in this period which is winter in Europe but not winter in the rest of the world.”

So we aren’t going to get the air conditioned stadiums anymore?!?!?

Maybe, but the decision hasn’t been made yet, according to Blatter.  FIFA executive committee member Franz Beckenbauer first raised the idea after the 2022 voting, and the idea was seconded by UEFA President Michel Plantini.  Qatar has not yet requested the change in season but with the 2022 World Cup twelve years away, there is time to do so.

So if the World Cup were to be moved to January 2022, who would be the biggest winner?  MLS

Assuming all major soccer leagues keep their schedules in the next twelve years, Europe and fall-to-spring leagues will have to make major adjustments to their 2021-2023 schedules to accommodate a major international tournament.  You can imagine the angst that will cause the leagues, who will have to shift their schedules for months to accommodate their players’ international obligations.

However, MLS has the type of schedule that is perfect for a winter World Cup.  As the event is ending, training camps are getting into full swing and national team players (for the U.S. and other countries) can easily integrate themselves into their clubs without missing huge chunks of games, like they do now during the World Cup.  There wouldn’t be that awkward period of time where MLS games are overshadowed by televised World Cup games.  And if the U.S. national team makes serious progress, the positive vibe and support for the national team could translate into MLS support (although that was not necessarily the case this year).

So as an MLS fan, I fully support the 2022 Winter World Cup!  Do you?

A week after the US loss of the 2022 World Cup, much ink and internet type has been spilled on whether the U.S. deserved the bid or was robbed, whether we American soccer fans have a false sense of entitlement or a shady process overwhelmed everything, and even whether U.S. soccer is ok without the Cup or seriously set back.  Now is the perfect time for Sunil Gulati to come forward and address the issue, and lay the groundwork for the future of U.S. soccer.

Why now?  The federation needs to be dragged out of its grief cycle and begin to focus on the future.  Gulati needs to reassert his leadership and, most importantly, show FIFA and the world that U.S. soccer is a mature organization dedicated to working toward the future together with FIFA.  So if I were in the USSF press office, I would have my organization president hold a press conference, and at this press conference have him deliver the following speech:

Thank you everyone for assembling here today.  I would like to discuss in a formal way the 2022 World Cup bidding process and the subsequent awarding of the World Cup to Qatar.  I have spoken to many of you on the record in a variety of formats, but I felt it was important to not only make a formal statement before everyone, but to address the future of U.S. soccer.

First, I would like to congratulate Qatar on winning the World Cup bid.  After viewing their presentation and their grand ideas for the event, I feel that a worthy location has been chosen.  Their progressive and forward-thinking ideas for building state-of-the-art stadiums that can then be donated to less fortunate countries were excellent and the kind of innovation that sometimes we think only America is capable of doing.  The nation, which will host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, deserves to host the world in 2022.

In a larger sense, I would like to commend FIFA for having the foresight to place the World Cup in the Middle East.  Civilization began on the bank of the Mesopotamia, and the fact that the region has never hosted a World Cup is unfortunate, a wrong that we will right in twelve years.  I do not want to delve into politics, which has little place in soccer, but too often Western contribution to the region has been warfare and weaponry.  This time, we will bring peace and unity, the kind I know the region will welcome.

I’d be remiss if I did not mention the rumors of corruption in the bid process and its impact on the Qatari selection.  Having seen no evidence of collusion or foul play with the selection, I wholeheartedly reject any notion that the selection was compromised.  To assume based on innuendo would be a disservice to our Qatari friends.  FIFA took action on the delegates that were accused of wrong doing, and without concrete evidence of other wrong doing I refuse to give credence to any other rumors.

That said, the FIFA selection process for too long has been cloaked in unnecessary secrecy and confusion, the kind that allows these type of rumors to exist.  I offer USSF and CONCACAF’s assistance to Mr. Blatter and the FIFA Executive Committee in reforming the selection process for two reasons.  First, at the end of the bid process, we all want there to be no doubt that the World Cup was fairly awarded.  Secondly, there is too much money wasted in the bid process.  England spent £15 million on their bid, money the country could have used elsewhere, only to garner two votes.  FIFA should be upfront as to the criteria and selection thought process to allow countries to spend their money wisely and economically in selling their country as a possible site.

Now, as for the future of U.S. soccer, we will place a bid for the 2026 World Cup, assuming FIFA rules make us eligible.  Instead of our past emphasis on being “soccer ready” and how much money an American World Cup will make (and it will make money), our slogan will be “one world, one nation.”  Our bid will emphasize the fact that Americans come from all over the globe and root for many different national teams, and our borders contain a microcosm of the world.  What better way to celebrate the world’s game than by holding it in a place where the world is represented, and can easily visit.  In fact, the U.S. is willing to make the 2026 World Cup more international by holding one match in the group stage in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean each (3 total matches outside the US), to allow our neighbors to benefit from the World Cup while still leaving the logistics and cost to us.

Finally, I will address the U.S. men’s national team.  There had been discussion that a U.S. World Cup in 2022 would allow the USSF to have an “end date” for the American soccer building project.  This discussion is a valid one, and I am announcing here today that USSF still has 2022 as the end date for a new building project: The American World Cup Project.  Our goal is to have the U.S. be a serious contender for the 2022 World Cup, even though it will not be held in America.  Instead, we plan to make the Qatar World Cup ours in everything but location.  We will build the USSF infrastructure as if we were hosting the event (which means new training grounds for many clubs) and make every decision with 2022 in mind.  This does not mean we will not compete in 2014 and 2018, but we realize the fallacy of the old 2010 project and pledge to put everything into a competitive 2022 team (and beyond).  Will it be easy? No, but the last year has taught us America can be a soccer power if we set our minds to it, and I pledge to do that today.

Thank you, and I will now take questions.

I’ve had about eleven hours to think about the results of the 2022 World Cup announcement, read my peers, and come to grips with the failure of the USSF to land the World Cup.  And I think I have a handle on my thoughts and emotions about today.  I watched the announcement via the EPL Talk live blog and Twitter, so I was spared the gut-punch of seeing the card with Qatar on it.  However, the announcement still hurts as I type this.

I think Qatar is a deserving host for the World Cup.  I like the idea of the World Cup bringing peace to a troubled region is a great idea.  Civilization began in Mesopotamia, and it’s only fair that after eighty years the region have a chance to host.  Their government and citizens were 100% behind the bid.  Say what you will about the air-conditioned stadiums that are portable, but if anyone can build an impossible building, Qatar can.  They have the money to do it.  Seeing pictures of their celebration and the speech thanking FIFA, even the hardest hearted person has to feel a little happy for the delegation.

As for the United States, we acted as though we had a right to this tournament, when in reality what right do we have to the World Cup?  The lead story on Sportscenter this morning was LeBron returning to Cleveland, not the World Cup announcement.  Even after the United State’s dramatic matches in the World Cup, MLS television viewership fell off in this country.  When we accuse other countries of not being able to truly honor soccer during the World Cup, we should hold our tongue until the ratings and attendance for MLS approach those of foreign leagues.  We (that is, Americans) should never have assumed the 2022 World Cup was ours.

And yet, the way it all went down is what made this whole thing rotten.

If you believe there were no politics in play on this FIFA Executive Committee, I have waterfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you.  England, the birthplace of the sport and home of the sport’s most well-known player (who presented the bid!), received fewer votes than a joint bid between the Netherlands and Belgium.  Coincidentally, the British press aired their high-profile investigation of FIFA this week.  But that was 2018, not 2022, so maybe the committee put aside their politics and made the selection based completely on the merit of the bids.

Not quite.  Anyone who tells you that Qatar is like the U.S. in 1994 is delusional; Qatar is not only not using the World Cup to build a domestic league but is even exporting their stadiums to other countries!  If FIFA wanted to boost a domestic league, they would have given the event to Australia, whose A-League needs a boost in popularity.  Also, it can’t be coincidence that the two winners were both major oil money countries with very suspect undergrounds.  If FIFA was afraid of its image being dragged through the mud by the BBC, it gave a big fat middle finger to the world media and gave the event to two countries with very suspect human rights records that also are plush with oil money.  Even is this was not why the two were selected (and I don’t think it was entirely), the perception is there and FIFA can’t counter it.

My other concern with the Qatar World Cup is something people have joked about but is a real issue – the restrictive societal laws in the country.  Maybe FIFA can figure out a way around it, but can Budweiser be the official beer of the Qatar World Cup?  Drinking alcohol is a big no-no in Qatar.  Additionally, will FIFA sponsors be hesitant to associate themselves with a Qatar World Cup if their record on women and religious minorities does not improve?  And the Middle East is not exactly known for political stability – there is a real risk some sort of conflict could be going on during the World Cup.  An improving Israel could face a very awkward run to the World Cup.  The fact that they were selected despite all this really throws the legitimacy of the bid into doubt.

One other item to note on today’s selection – FIFA may have been sending the U.S. a message with the selection of Russia for the 2018 World Cup.  Russia announced recently that its top-flight league would begin playing a fall-to-spring schedule beginning in 2012, despite the notorious Russian winters.  There is no doubt in this fan’s mind that FIFA was sending a not so subtle signal to the U.S.

At the end of the day, the United States hosted a World Cup in 1994, and maybe we only deserve to host one every so often.  I wrote about the impact of losing the bid on U.S. soccer, and it will hurt MLS and the other domestic soccer entities, but they will go on.  Soccer will not die out because of what happened today, and we should not consider bending to the will of FIFA in the hope of getting another shot at a World Cup.  But we should all be a little more humble and a little more dedicated to improving our sport here.

By now you have likely heard that the United States lost its bid to host the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a country with a population smaller than Latvia but who promised FIFA a truly revolutionary and peace-bringing World Cup.

What you may not know is the vote was not even remotely close.  The United States stood at the precipice of losing in every round:

Round 1: Qatar 11, South Korea/Japan/U.S. 3 each, Australia 1

Round 2: Qatar 10, U.S./South Korea 5, Japan 2

Round 3: Qatar 11, U.S. 6, South Korea 5

Round 4: Qatar 14, U.S. 8

So after all the talk of our infrastructure, money, promise, and government support, we were closer to being eliminated every round than to winning the World Cup.  There will be analysis and reaction on MLS Talk I suspect for the next few days, but for now sound off: what do you think of the U.S. losing the 2022 World Cup to Qatar?

P.S.  It could have been worse, we could have suffered England’s fate.

EPL Talk Network Live Blogging can be seen by clicking here.

The time for waiting is over.  The final arguments are being made during the night in Zurich (and I’ll leave it to your imagination what “persuasion” means in Zurich) and all that’s left is the nervous waiting.  So, here’s your guide to the World Cup announcement:

When: Tomorrow December 2 at 10:00AM Eastern, 7:00 AM Pacific

Where: For TV viewers, you can watch the announcement on ESPN, Fox Soccer, and numerous Internet sites, including FIFA.com.  Of course you can chat with our own Jonathon Feyerherm here on MLS Talk tomorrow (which is how I will watch the announcement) about both the 2018 and 2022 announcements.  If you are in a partying mood, the U.S. Bid and local visitor’s bureaus will be hosting bid parties.  The major locations are:

Atlanta – STATS Food and Drink (300 Marietta ST. NW)

Dallas – Dallas City Hall Lobby

Kansas City – 810 Zone on the Plaza (4686 Broadway)

Los Angeles – ESPN Zone LA Live

Philadelphia – Tir Na Nag (1600 Arch Street)

Seattle – FX McRory’s (419 Occidental Ave S)

Washington DC – Newseum (555 Pennsylvania Ave NW)

You can see all of the official celebration sites here.  So, when the big day arrives, where will you watch the announcement?