Now's not the time to tackle corruption in FIFA

Here's a better one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VluY5SWfjSI

Agree entirely Steve,the only thing that suprises me is that people are suprised by the actions of FIFA. Those who question its at times dubious antics ,need to ask the question " What is the alternative?". How can you run a sport as widespread as Football covering so many cultures with their good & bad traits better? Reform the voting process & give more people involved in the game a say?. Twenty four men,209 members What happened to the rotation system ideas. How can you be fairer than that?. Let the members of each confederation as their turn comes around choose a candidate Save some governments a load of money & cut out a lot of the hot air from the media. Then again maybe not we would be up most likely against Qatar anyway. On the flip side of the negativity to FIFA is the positive side,not least of which is the World Cup itself & the way it encompasses the planet. Without FIFA there would not be a World Cup in its present form. Nor would there be humanitarian aid through FIFA. Type into Google "FIFA aid" many examples of it.

That was announced by Beckenbauer pretty much straight after the vote. He's leaving the Exco committee shortly anyway so it won't matter one bit. I too have lived in Qatar, i mean can you imagine the world cup in Qatar? Is everyone going to go to the Corniche after games? I mean what's the plan, they are going to have to turn the country inside out to host and quite frankly I expect Australia to possibly get the nod, a few years into the future. It ain't over by a long long way for Australia. So we can make noise, play in the Asian cup, host the Asian cup in 2015, have a few quality clubs and fingers crossed national sides come through and wait for the bribing vote riggers to fall over.

Great article - it is true, no one comes out of this sorry saga smelling of roses. Just that some countries are better at placing strategic monetary influences than others while not getting caught. A bit like doping in tour de france. A small group of corrupt old men have stolen our beautiful game. Time has come to take it back. Reform FIFA now!

Sensible article and mostly sensible comment. There are several strands here to comment on. First is that if Australia's bid had been successful I would have been on this forum expressing my delight and optimism and not uttering a peep about FIFA, That makes me a hypocrite and although I am not proud I have to admit it. Second is that we are naive to be disappointed on the basis of "unfairness". Although it has been expressed above that "no-one is innocent" I think that is a simple minded view. Australia has a system which is unusual on a world basis. That is we are a democracy with a secret ballot, independent electoral commission, relatively free press and an independent judicial system. In practice there are shortcomings in the workings of all parts of this system. However the key is that the aspiration and intention of the system is a fair and predictable process. Obviously there other countries which share these attributes; however most countries and most of the world population do not. FIFA shares none of the attributes of our system. It is an oligarchy made up of men of influence. Decisions are made on the basis of what is good for these men. It has nothing at all to do with democracy or fairness. That is why it is nothing to do with reality to complain on that basis. Australians doing business in parts of the world where bribery is expected have certainly been caught with dirty hands [the AWB payoffs to Saddam Hussein as the most egregious example]. However it is illegal and regarded as unethical. It would seem that the Australian WC bid engaged in some minor "soft" bribery. I doubt that we are actually any good at it: Frank Lowy's business dealings outside Australia are in parts of the world where bribery is illegal. I believe Frank is being honest when he says we ran a clean bid. That is the way our bid and any future bids should be. Frank, those associated with the bid [with the likely exception of the consultants who were probably just in it for the money] the government and the wider Australian community were idealistic to hope that a clean bid would be enough. There are important lessons to learn about football politics. We need to be fully embedded in the AFC before we should even dream of another bid. If we can't count on support from our own confederation then we are stuffed. i don't condemn Frank Lowy for dreaming. However while the timing was right for him I think it was premature for where we are as a football nation. I hope his enthusiasm survives his disappointment. I hope he is able to get the FFA to focus as the absolute first priority on getting our domestic structure and finances strong and stable. Secondly, although the highest level of football is in Europe and our top players will continue to aspire to succeed there, we must become part of Asia in a football sense. We must take competition with them seriously. We must show in our hosting of the AFC championship in 2015 [is that the right date?] that we are the sort of hosts that other Asian countries would want to support as first choice WC bidders. Let's get past our collective disappointment and get the basics right. p.s. I plead guilty to the charge of wisdom after the event. I can only plead in mitigation that nothing aids clarity of thought like failure.

I would have been disappointed with the United States being selected no doubt but you could make some sort of footballing case for the US, for Qatar you cannot. Infact when the United States was selected for the 1994 edition there was pressure from FIFA that the US would have it's hosting rights taken away should it not qualify for the world cup in 1990. This is after the US had been to multiple world cup's previously they merely had a major lag between 1950 and 1990. So why is it that a nation who has never qualified for a world cup, suddenly gets to host the major event on the sports global calendar? I laugh how individuals compare it to South Africa, South Africa was representative of an entire continent filled with fantastic footballing teams, Qatar is not part of any continent, the classification in footballing terms goes as West Asia. Also South Africa had qualified and already played at multiple world cups by the time of their hosting announcement, they also had to deal with apartheid, people might have heard of it. What excuse does Qatar have for not qualifying? lack of money? lack of resources? certainly not, the answer is nothing. They are the ultimate disgrace to international football, stealing footballers from other nations and giving them citizenship to play when Qatar is one of the hardest places on the planet to gain citizenship. They only merely cemented this fact further by stealing the world cup hosting rights by combining their abysmal footballing history, lack of footballing support with the worst technical report ever given to any nation bidding in the history of FIFA. So to answer your question, yes, I wouldn't have really cared had the US, Japan or even if South Korea had won the hosting rights. Giving it to Australia would have been the best thing and most appropriate option in my opinion of course but giving it to Qatar was on the opposite end of the scale. It was the day that truly money spoke above anything of footballing worth and after all it is the Football World Cup is it not?

I do agree Steve, it was worth try, even if it was worth 45 million dollars. People forget that it took sydney 3 gos to get the olympics. When you bid for these things, it is tough competition. However the process of just 22 people to decide it is pretty ordinary. When you consider there are 208 member countries, every country should've had a say. I think the technical bid should be rated higher, than the votes. Say 60% is technical, 40% is count of votes. Add the 2 scores up, out of 100, then you have a result.

Hmmmm.....hopefully some of that $46 billion being spent on the Cup goes to raising the pay of migrant workers above $45 a week.

Has everyone seen the Panorama investigation piece put out by the BBC last week? It is high time that FIFA's high priests be brought to heel. They do not 'own' the game. They carry like they do. Would really love it if the English FA led a breakaway as I am sure it would destroy FIFA.

I don't think it is, it seems to be the roar's ideals for putting Australians as some sort of whingers but the fact is FIFA have been at it for a long time and the crunch came when Qatar were awarded the 2022 world cup. It was the final nail in the FIFA coffin. I don't see an issue at all with Russia and that is the problem, Russia are a nation that deserves to host the world cup, whether they bribed their way to victory is inconsequential. I don't know why the English are having goes at Russia when clearly it was Asia who let them down. England has done a massive amount for football development in Asia, yet Bin Hammam and his cronies supported Spain/Portugal in a collusion pact instead of England who had done all the work. England too should blame Qatar not Russia. Russia are a deserved host and it will be a beautiful world cup, Qatar will not be I can guarantee it. FIFA have gotten the decisions on past world cup hosts correct even with all their corruption issues and that was their saving grace. With the selection of Qatar for the 2022, FIFA took out that last remaining twig of hope about the organisation. The selection of Qatar was the worst decision ever made by the organisation and it is now that everyone must twist FIFA's arm, not 5 years down the track. The time for action is NOW!!!

The Swiss government has ordered an enquiry into a number of organisations including FIFA and IOC, as they are concerned that the running of some of these organisations are adversely affecting the image of Switzerland. I didn't realise that there are 50 or so similar organisations controlling worldwide activities from sport to trade unions in Switzerland. I wonder with all this pressure whether a member of the FIFA executive committee other than the members from the UK and Aus will break ranks. Probably unlikely, but somebody may have a conscious, you never know.

This Vid is only one of the many issues that will face qatar over the next several years and its not only about Football. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z5FpfiP6K8&feature=channel

Les Murray Slams Qatar Decision http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/190821,les-murray-slams-qatar-decision.aspx