There was bitter disappointment yesterday as Australia woke up to find that our 2022 World Cup bid was booted in the first round of voting. Australia embarrassingly received only one vote from the 22 available, with the eventual decision going to the tiny nation of Qatar.
Australia’s bid was always going to struggle, with our bid team trying to convince FIFA that the time difference between Australia and the massive European market would not affect profitability. The strength of our own football codes would also have caused unrest amongst the voting contingent, with AFL and NRL seasons that overlap with the World Cup.
The question must be asked if a cartoon kangaroo gallivanting around Australia with Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe has any relevance at all to a FIFA voting panel of balding, middle aged businessmen.
The prospect of a World Cup in Qatar is an unusual choice for FIFA to make; it does offers a unique opportunity to enter the lucrative market of Middle East.
Conversely, Qatar has a world ranking stands at 113th and has never reached the World Cup. Qatar’s population was 1.4million in 2009, according to the World Bank, less than the population of Brisbane. This suggests that the local population will be unable to fill the stadiums, and will rely on foreigners and tourists to make up the numbers.
Additionally, the tournament will be held during Qatar’s summer, where temperatures soar to over 50° Celsius.
These factors were seemingly overlooked by the voting contingent, despite a damning earlier report by FIFA that condemns the extreme heat that will be suffered by athletes and spectators alike.
After the Qatar’s success was announced, bid chief executive Hassan Al-Thawadi, stated that, “Heat is not and will not be an issue.”
Aussies can find some solace in the fact that England also bowed out in the first round of votes, and Poms will take it much more personally.
Calls for a review of the voting process will undoubtedly be cried today from those who missed out on hosting rights. The FIFA officials that vote on the host nation have faced a barrage of criticism in the weeks leading up to the vote, with allegations of corruption and bribery.
The selection of the wealthy country of Qatar as 2022 hosts is sure to raise a few eyebrows both in Australia and abroad, considering the USA was firm favourite to win. The legitimacy of the voting process was further discredited when news of Qatar’s successful bid was leaked on Twitter an hour before the official announcement.
January’s 2011 Asian Cup, to be hosted in Qatar, now shapes as an important indicator on the country’s ability to host a major international sporting event.
mahony
Guest
The "Kangaroo" is embarrasing apparently? - and this from people who always decry football fans as suffering from a cultural cringe. Maybe they know how we feel now when we look at their provincialism and associated cultural activities such as the AFL and its culture?
jamesb
Guest
I wouldn't be surprised if Qatar was stripped of hosting 2022 following investigations and evidence that leads to bribes, collusion, threats etc. 2022, 12 years away, plenty of time for a change of host to be made. I would really love for the british media or anyone to go out and investigate FIFA. What would make my day is seeing the likes of Septic Bladder and Mohammad Rubbish Bin Hammered get caught out with overwhelming evidence against them.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
What makes the result "embarrassing"? It seems we ran a bid campaign that was fair, clean and without a hint of misbehaviour. Surely, that is not embarrassing - it's something that we should be proud of? Isn't it "interesting" that the 3 best bids: England, USA & Australia all received the fewest 1st round votes! People go on about: "but, we only got 1 vote". According to Franz Beckenbauer, "Australia's bid was perfect" and we can assume our 1 vote was courtesy of The Kaiser. And, to me, that means we can hold our head up high - one vote from The Kaiser is actually worth something. Also, England - the country that is the home of football, the country that is the home of the best football league competition, the country whose bid received a 100% economic value rating from McKinsey & Co, the country with a perfect technical report from FIFA's evaluation team .... England also only got one real vote. You see, whilst England actually got 2 votes in total, one of those votes was from England's member on the FIFA Ex-Co! Additionally, the USA - a country whose bid also received a 100% economic value rating from McKinsey & Co, the country with a perfect technical report from FIFA's evaluation team .... the USA only got TWO real votes in Round 1. You see, whilst USA actually got 3 votes in total in Round 1, one of those votes was from the USA's member on the FIFA Ex-Co!
sydboz
Guest
What you also should know is 80% of Qatar's population are expats, who don't care at all about Qatar, just their next pay check, these are the slaves etc who work on their construction sites and their abused maids. The real population of Qatar is therefore around 200k, it's such a disgrace that they have managed to rig the votes and steal the world cup hosting rights. The world should boycott 2022. That's if it gets underway at all, having lived there, they will literally have to turn their country inside out to make this happen. I've already heard rumors terrorists are even more interested in Qatar now thanks to it's undeserved "win". So we will see, this story is far from over and watch the protests when Qatar play next outside of the middle east. A lot of people are angry that Qatar stole football's soul in Zurich. There is no more undeserved host of a world cup than Qatar.