It’s been a long road for Frank Lowy, Ben Buckley and the Australian 2022 World Cup bid team. Two and a half long years of painstaking work preparing a bid to impress FIFA officials enough to cast their vote to bring the biggest spectacle on earth Down Under.
Praise from FIFA President Sepp Blatter and with his idea of leaving a footballing legacy in the host country excited and raised the hope of not only the bidding team, but of the whole nation.
As we came to find out, our bid book covered everything necessary in accordance to the prerequisites set by FIFA – except the fine print at the end (if you know what I mean).
The decision to elect Russia for 2018 and Qatar in 2022 has come at a price for FIFA with other countries that bid for both tournaments showing their back to the governing body of football. English newspaper ‘The Sun’ fired off a dressing down of the Executive Committee members for going against their word.
Come the end of the day, England has vowed not to bid for another World Cup until FIFA change the voting system.
I’ll save FIFA any excuses and make up a new voting system the way I think the process should be carried out.
We’ll start off switching things around in the FIFA criteria long before any country shows interest in hosting the event. Everything FIFA require is pretty much spot on, the capacity of stadiums and the requirements of each city are all included.
However there are a couple of points I would add:
– The bidding countries must have a sound footballing history – the countries that are able to bid to host the World Cup must have a place in the history books of the game.
Germany 2006 are a great example, led by World Cup winning player and coach, Franz Beckenbauer, the Germans produced one of the best World Cups to date played in stadiums of significant history. The Germans backed their bid with 3 World Cup wins, 3 European Championships and already a one time World Cup host in 1974.
– Countries must have a precedent of hosting events – let me touch on Germany again. The Germans hosted the Confederations Cup in 2005, FIFA World Cups in 1974 and 2006, hosted the Olympic Games, and the Winter Olympic games twice. All this, and the Bundesliga; one of the most stable and successful leagues in the world.
Australia also have great sporting precedents hosting the Olympic Games in 1956 and 2000, the Cricket World Cup in 1992 and will do so again in 2015, hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1987 and 2003, and the Commonwealth Games were hosted by Australia three times.
If we look at football, Australia has hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cups in 1983 and 1991. All this amongst the annual Australian Open and Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The usual process would continue with the presentation of each bid book.
FIFA sends out a group of delegates to all of the countries bidding in order to prove everything is right. I would do things differently.
I would still send delegates to all the countries bidding but I would also send 12 undercover delegates and release them into the cities that have been put forward in the bid.
Sending the undercover delegates would see how the native citizens react to tourists and if they are helpful, the delegates would also see the bad aspects of the country, something that is hidden from the other visiting delegates.
Now for the big changes.
When all the FIFA Executive Committee members and the bid teams are required in Zurich, they are to stay in different hotels and avoid any contact between each other.
Then comes the voting, all this private voting just reeks of corruption so I would sit all 22 voting members on a long table, place all the media and TV cameras in front of them, and make them vote on the spot.
Once all have made their decisions one by one they are to show their piece of paper with the country they vote along with an explanation as to why they voted for that particular country.
An alternative, and perhaps the best option is to have the Presidents of every Federation vote or the president of every country wishing to participate in the qualifying stages of that World Cup. This would go some ways to ensure a clean vote. Having 130+ different men voting would make it particularly hard to buy yourself the World Cup.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) have 106 eligible members that vote to decide the host city for Olympic Games so why can’t we run under the same line.
A far more audacious option is to make members of clubs vote; after all it’s us who fork out thousands of dollars to attend the World Cup.
I would give members of every club a reference number where they can log in at the FIFA or some FIFA recognized website and vote. Once a vote has been placed then that account is disabled. Although it’s a long shot it would definitely rub out any corruption from the voting system.
There is no doubt money was an element in the decisions to both 2018/2022 World Cup host announcement and this is my opinion on how we can make the right decision when it comes to hosting the biggest show on earth.
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