Bin Hammam likely to snub Australian World Cup bid

By Liam FitzGibbon, 29 Jul 2010 Liam FitzGibbon is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: Asian Football Confederation, football, Mohamed Bin Hammam, Socceroos, world cup bid, World Cup football, World Football

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Australia’s World Cup bid has suffered an untimely setback with Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam effectively promising his vote to Qatar to host the 2022 tournament.

Bin Hammam’s comments couldn’t come at a worse time for Football Federation Australia, which has spent the past three days trying to impress a six-man FIFA inspection team in town to assess the country’s bid credentials.

Qatari Hammam, one of 24 FIFA executives who will vote on hosts for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments on December 2 in Zurich, has vowed to support his home nation unless it is not a realistic chance.

“I have one vote … And frankly speaking, I will vote for Qatar.

“But if Qatar is not in the run, I will vote for another Asian country,” Bin Hammam said at a football forum in Singapore on Wednesday.

“I am president of Asia so it is my duty to see that World Cup will be hosted in Asia no matter which country.”

Qatar has emerged as one of Australia’s biggest rivals for the 2022 tournament, with the US another strong candidate and South Korea and Japan also in the running.

The six FIFA delegates in Australia were shown a presentation on the 10 potential host cities and 12 stadiums at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on final day of their three-day visit on Wednesday.

The inspection team was due to fly to Newcastle, one of the potential host cities, but the visit was cancelled due to heavy rain and they were instead taken to Darling Harbour’s Sydney Wildlife World to see the resident 4.8-metre saltwater crocodile.

They had earlier attended a breakfast meeting with some of Australia’s leading business figures.

The FIFA inspection team was headed by Chilean Football Federation President Harold Mayne-Nicholls and also included chief executive of the 2010 South Africa World Cup organising committee Danny Jordaan, FIFA Head of Event Management Jurgen Muller, FIFA Marketing representative David Fowler, FIFA Competitions representative Julio Avellar and FIFA Media Officer Wolfgang Eichler.

Australia was the third stop on tour of the nine countries that are bidding to host either the 2018 or 2022 tournaments.

Qatar is aiming to become the first Middle Eastern country to host football’s biggest tournament, but faces several hurdles including scorching summer heat and restrictive alcohol and dress policies.

But the head of the nation’s bid, Hassan Al-Thawadi, said in Singapore he felt the desert nation was a strong chance of convincing FIFA it would be a worthy host.

“Our chances are good,” Al-Thawadi said.

“It will be a close call, but I do believe coming to Qatar and the Middle East in 2022 will be a new frontier for FIFA.”

Al-Thawadi said Qatar was developing “second-generation cooling technology” which will keep stadiums, training facilities and fan areas at about 27 degrees Celsius, far cooler than the 41 degrees Celsius high that Qatar averages in June, July and August.

Qatar, which will host the Asian Cup in January, plans to invest $4 billion to build 12 stadiums which would all be within an hour of each other, allowing teams and fans to cut down on travel time and cost.

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The Crowd Says (10) | Page 1 of Comments

agga78 said | July 29th 2010 @ 8:14am | Report comment

What a wasted vote, if he wants an Asian team to get the world cup, it aint going to be Qatar, 50 degress, no alcohol, so no party atmosphere, no populatuion, no tourists, what is this guy smoking.

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Harvey the Scouser said | July 29th 2010 @ 9:38am | Report comment

I don’t understand why this is news, we all understood he was going to vote for his own nation

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mintox said | July 29th 2010 @ 9:42am | Report comment

There is no issue here, he votes for Qatar in the first round of voting and it will be their only vote which will see them eliminated.

Then he has to vote for someone else in the second round.

All the reports of Qatar being a strong bid is ridiculous, there are too many issues in the way of a bid from the country, not least of which is the fact that they would have to build all the stadiums, they extreme heat, the political situation in the middle east and the restrictive dress policies.

Qatar has so much more to overcome than the other Asian bidders.

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- ItsCalledFootball said | July 29th 2010 @ 10:03am | Report comment
  
  Agree.
  
  Can’t see Qatar getting through the first round of voting, they’ll only pick up a couple of votes.
  
  Japan and Korea won’t get through the first round either, they have hosted one in 2002.
  
  Australia will go through to the latter stages because we have support from Oceania and European countries.
  
  Once Qatar, Korea and Japan are eliminated Bin Haman will vote for Australia.
  
  It will be down to the final two – Australia v US.
  
  The US has better facilitiies and crowds and will make more money, but the US have already had a turn in 94 and the WC has never been held in Australia – will be an interesting vote.
  
  Hope the FIFA WAGS liked their trip to Australia, the Koalas and their pearl necklaces.
  
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- Ben of Phnom Penh said | July 29th 2010 @ 10:40am | Report comment
  
  agreed. This was always the way it was going to go. No surprises at all.
  
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Fussball ist unser leben said | July 29th 2010 @ 10:41am | Report comment

Oh my gosh … fancy that! How outrageous that a Qatari would vote for Qatar!

I mean to say; if an Aussie were the President of the AFC he would never vote for Australia before a rival ??… Yeah; right.

I can’t believe some fool asked Bin Hammam this question in the 1st place and only a naive person would be surprised by his response.

Now, I’ve never met any of the Members of the FIFA Executive Committee, who will also vote on the WC bids, but let me take a wild guess at how the following Executive Members will vote:

* Chung Mong Joon (South Korea) will vote for South Korea
* Ángel María Villar (Spain) will vote for Spain
* Geoff Thompson (England) will vote for England
* Chuck Blazer (USA) will vote for USA
* Junji Ogura (Japan) will vote for Japan
* Vitaly Mutko (Russia) will vote for Russia

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Nick said | July 29th 2010 @ 11:11am | Report comment

Agree with all the comments above. Suprise suprise, a Qatari voting for Qatar…
Would John Howard vote against a Cricket World Cup in Australia?!

Moving right along…

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keeper13 said | July 29th 2010 @ 12:54pm | Report comment

yeh..Qatari president announces he’ll vote first for..drum roll…Qatar!!?
woh..geez..no one expected that…

usual local commercial media soccer ‘gloom and doom’ beatup ..and by ‘anonymous’ AAP reporter….

australian medias objective ‘support’ for our own australias WC bid again on display ..
what a joke they are..

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Cristobal said | July 29th 2010 @ 5:49pm | Report comment

A vote for Qatar is a vote against the fans. Great to have indoor stadiums but how do the fans stay cool away from the stadiums? Everyone to hang out in their hotels and in shopping centres?

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The Special One said | July 29th 2010 @ 6:12pm | Report comment

Will the Japanese and korean candidates back Australia if they are the last Asian team standing? Or maybe vote USA hoping to keep them in the contest for 2026?? Will be interesting.

I read a very good article about why the USA hasnt pulled out of 2018 bidding. The three CONCACAF votes they have are a very good bargaining chip to them.

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