I will be one of many here to congratulate Russia and Qatar for their awarding of hosting rights for the 2018 and the 2022 FIFA World Cups respectively, but what you are about to read may come out as a bit of a sore loser.
Having said this, FIFA’s choices for the future World Cups will raise eyebrows amongst the international footballing community.
Firstly, we must not turn a blind eye toward our own bid.
I personally feel for Mr Frank Lowy and the bid delegation that worked hand in hand with the Australian Government to attempt to put forward the best possible bid. However, we musn’t play ignorance to our own flaws. Perhaps the pre-decision hype mixed with our ‘lucky country’ attitude may have played up our chances too high.
Even I became all caught up in the euphoria that was ‘ComePlay’, that we may have needed to sit back, and take a big look at our bid.
I admire all that the team (by definition Frank Lowy) has done locally. But I believe that the downfall to our bid was the final presentation, along with the high confidence leading up.
The final bid video should definantely been taken much more seriously. FIFA is an international cooperation, one of the biggest collaboration of nations in the World. A bid video confirming out strong intentions, and a re-cap of the stadia, and a more in-depth look at our economic stability and our regional assets, as well as previous history hosting international events.
Moving on to the Qatar bid, our eyes must first turn toward the strong political pull that would take Qatar to the hosting rights. Mohammed Bin Hammam is a Qatari.
He is the President of the AFC. Now having stated numorously about his plans to stage a takeover from Sepp Blatter in the FIFA Congress 2011 if Qatar are not given the hosting rights, this already spurs a long debate over the political nature of the hosting rights.
We have to keep in mind that politics will triumph in most international arenas, and upon first glance, FIFA is no exception.
Qatar’s is a nation with a population sub-2 million. Along with most of the stadia being located within a 20 mile radius of each other, somehow the nature of FIFA’s stadia rule in the past has been reliquished for the rich Arab nation.
Nevertheless, the alcohol which is currently lacking in the nation will apparently be allowed in several fan zones. These zones, which will hopefully actually contain a real fan (this has a double meaning), as it gets rather hot in Qatar, but more to the point, football fans are going to be herded into little zones to drink.
This is defeating the point of the fanfare that previous FIFA World Cups have shown. Drinking in the streets with fans and enemy alike, sharing one common goal, to watch the world’s greatest players.
This time around, however, fans and enemy will be drinking together, in pens designed for the seemingly insufferable task of alcohol consumption, with one common goal, to huddle around the fans within the fan zone, whilst catching a glimpse one of eight football matches all being held within 20 miles of their zone.
Sarcastic comments aside, the lack of alcohol is something that fans alike will not be too happy about, especially that lack of free (not financially) drinking.
The fan zones will not be the same as Germany and South Africa. The heat will be countered with air-conditioned stadia, however this does not excuse the intense summer heat that fans and players will have to comphrehend whilst not in the stadiums.
Finally, the one point that has baffled me the most is the selection of a nation with absolutely not footballing history, or culture. Qatar are ranked in the 100s. Surely the argument is football growth, but for all it’s worth, the population of 1.2 million and the half the size of Tasmania cannot benefit to the competition’s full potential.
Playing down football’s growing football sides, both ranked within the top 30 nations, Australian and the United States is a very big and baffling choice.
I am not a sore loser, however I am quite the hypocrit. I’d like to say, however, I do not believe I am liable to the term sore loser at this situation. I am more suceptible to the term confused right now.
Which is one I’m sure we can attribute to almost 20 million Australians, plus the added populations of the United States and England.
Frank Lowy, Johnny Warren a fellow footballing pioneer in this country said ‘I Told you So’, and I, as a journalist, say ‘I’m Sorry.’ We truly appreciate all you have done for football in this country, and we will try and try again til we are succesful. Any World Cup we host in the future, be it 2026, or 2056, will be hosted in your name and honor. I will be the first to say that our FIFA World Cup Stadia should be named Frank Lowy Stadium in your honor.
I have doubts that you will read this short notice, but on behalf of your fellow footballing compadriates, “We say Sorry.”
In 2018 we will be putting down the Vodka in Russia celebrating our footballing conquests in the east, while in 2022 we will be saying “It’s too damn hot.”
FIFA, “We told you so.”
Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/turnermate / twitter.com/TheRoarSports
mintox
Guest
You could argue the same about Australia. If FIFA was serious about bringing the game to the frontiers of football then it would have sought out the Indian and Chinese Football Associations about bidding.
The Special One
Guest
Its hard to get to europe's level when clubs have a salary cap of a few million. What FIFA has to remember that in the US, soccer is competing against the 4 richest sports leagues in the world. If you add college football and basketball its a super competitive market place. Despite this soccer is growing, no its not the big 4 sports, but its light years ahead of where it used to be. The US soccer federation has a 50 year timeline to make soccer a big sport in the US. I believe it will get there. MLS is doing much better than most leagues in europe and the fact that 25 million people watched the World cup final was testament that soccer is growing in the USA. Just yesterday Houston Dynamo signed off on a 90 million dollar stadium. Kansas city is just finishing off a brand new one as well. MLS might not be that popular but soccer is booming in the US. Giving them this one would have been the tipping point for further acceleration.
mintox
Guest
A better comparison than London would be hosting the World Cup in Perth in the middle of summer with the average temperature equal to the usual Perth Maximums in the low 40 degrees. If you've been outside during a +40 degree Perth day you would not think twice before turning down Qatar. FIFA need to realise that you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't set out criteria to fulfill and complete technical reports only to turn around and pick bids because that is what you felt like. And lets not get sidetracked by the media claiming all sorts of reasons under the sun. At the end of the day, the way the voting process is structured the members of the Ex Co are going to vote for whatever benefits them. And this is the crux of the problem. What should have happened for the World Cup bids is that FIFA should have investigated the bids and eliminated the technically or logistically insufficient bids leaving only two bids two vote for at the end. In 2022 Qatar would have been dropped early and bids like Japan and Korea would have been told thanks but no thanks due to recently hosting the cup (maybe their should be a rule of a minimum of 30 years between hosting the World Cup). Australia vs US would have been a fair result of that and for the 2018 bid I suspect England vs Spain/Portugal would have been a fair result for them.
mahony
Guest
I agree with all that. Great read.
Sharminator
Roar Rookie
I agreee 100% ... I thought that the USA would win too ... USA 94 was the the most profitable world cup .. they have a huge market, all the stadiums are built, and all the infrastructure is in place, and they have no problems holding world class events. However, I think one thing that went against the US was that FIFA had the idea that USA 94 would would help transform the US into a soccer nation ... and that didnt happen. Yes there are plenty of kids who play soccer in the US ... and plenty of soccer Mums ..... Yes MLS is going, and has some almost retired stars like David Beckham at times .. But ... US club sides are still nowhere near competitive with Latin American or European teams, and MLS isnt watched by anyone outside of the US. Overall, soccer in the US, while having good participation levels, particularly amongst youth, has nowhere near the popularity of Professional or College American Football, Basketball, Baseball or Ice Hockey. In other words the hopes of FIFA ... that the US would develop a Professional Soccer League comparable with Europe of Latin America never happened ... and dosnt look like it ever will. In contrast in a country like Russia .. or the Middle East .. there is still a relative void of professional sport .. that FIFA perhaps thinks it could get into. So ... the US wasnt selected as, while profitable, its soccer potential dosnt look like it will ever be realised ... Australia wasnt selected as within FIFA it simply has no power to pull votes and nothing to offer other delegates .. South Korea wasnt selected due to the current problems with North Korea which make South Korea seem risky ... So you are left with Japan or Qatar ... but then Japan had the world cup in 2002 ... Suddenly the choice of Qatar dosnt seem as wacky and zany as first thought does it .. I still think it is crazy .. a World Cup in a country the size of London, 10 air conditioned stadiums within 25 km of each other, 50 degree heat, a poor human rights record, a world ranking of 150 etc etc ,,, but the other options wernt exactly sparkling either ... and if you add in all of the bribes and money Qatar has .. there really wasnt another choice ...
Millster
Guest
I agree with Mintox above. Lets not link the question of whether Qatar was the right choice or not with our Australian bias. Separately, lets ask whether Australia would have been the right choice? And, if chosen, what would other (losing) nation's citizens have maybe-legitimately said about the merits of the Australian bid? My surprise is that USA didn't win 2022, and I think that is a huge loss for world football. Australia did us proud by stepping up and one day deserve to host the Cup. We had a good first crack from which we can learn. But were we #1 - in terms of overall bid merit, and in terms of presentation - no. At best, #2 or #3 of the five.
mintox
Guest
Qatar was the wrong decision but Australia wasn't necessarily the right one. It would have taken a miracle to overcome the US and we might have done it if the structure of the FIFA Executive Committee (Ex Co) and it's voting procedure were not so flawed. Firstly, how bids such as Japan and Korea can even get off the ground only 8 years after hosting a previous world cup is mind boggling. Secondly in business it's practice for members with conflicts of interest to declare them and often not partake in voting. How then are 7 of the voting nations allowed to vote at all? Rumours of vote swapping between the Ex Co members of bidding countries for two bids (2018 and 2022) were brought up prior to the votes and ignored. So many of the Ex Co have been there for a very long time (often over 20 years), long enough to make strong voting blocks and exclude legitimate bids such as those of England, Australia, USA, Netherlands/Belgium and Spain Portugal. Clearly they need to rotate membership of not only the committee but also of the presidency especially if more rumours of Blatter ensuring Qatar won so that Bin Hammmam (Qatari born AFC President and Ex Co Member) would not run for FIFA presidency.
djsinnema
Roar Rookie
I will just say that i am completly dumbfounded as to why Qatar would win the world cup over 4 top 50 nations. I was in fact certain that the USA would of done it. Qatar should prepare it's self for maybe one of the biggest criticism campaigns to ever be brought upon an event in world history (worse than what India copped). I guess we will find out some of the hidden agendas of delagetes over the coming months.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
What I find amazing is that so many, including people who should know better, believe this is some sort of legit process. It's not. Never has been. We can only hope that the BBC continue their investigations, because there's plenty of dirt to dig up.
Mark Young
Guest
Good article Michael, I enjoyed reading it. You write very well. Yeah I had forgotten about the 'rule' of only one or two stadiums per city. Seems FIFA has overlooked that as well. I'm just angry that all this 'bid process' with technical delegates, bid books etc is clearly unnecessary since the World Cup is just given to whichever country has done the best backroom deals. Furious, Disappointed, Jaded, Shocked. All those things.
Michael Turner
Roar Pro
Fix up Twitter links. Sorry. Its too late for the both of us