I’m still confused. Qatar was given the 2022 World Cup and FIFA is declared by fans as an evil, corrupt, organisation interested in nothing but money, which they presumably shall use to build a fully functional Death Star.
So, by that logic, if Australia was awarded the World Cup, would FIFA still a sinister order led by a Sith Lord or a bunch of dinky die, true blue, ridgy didge, dead set, fair dinkum, little bloody wonders who made the only choice they possibly could?
The main theme over the last few weeks has been outrage. Why didn’t they pick us? We’re awesome! Why didn’t they pick us? We have a Harbour Bridge!
My favourite article of outrage came from a newspaper that used provocative quotes from an Islamic message board to suggest that when Sepp Blatter revealed the contents of his envelope, not only was it a win for Qatar but for the terrorists as well.
They even quoted one Abu Khubeib al-Khorasani – yes, that Abu Khubeib al-Khorasani who claimed on a message board that in 2022 not only would Cristiano Ronaldo be kidnapped, but Al-Qaeda would win the title.
I’ll admit, I gave that quote a standing ovation. It is very rare that you read a sentence that contains such incredible misinformation whilst, at the same time, find a newspaper with the courage to print it.
As frightened as I am for the future 37-year-old Ronaldo, the second half of the sentence was the most consuming.
I’ve never been a fan of their work, but if Al-Qaeda is able to put together a team that takes the Cup in 2022, my hat is officially doffed.
I suppose they already have the training camps and, from their videos, they do look pretty handy on the monkey bars but I’m absolutely amazed at how little press Qatar’s admission that they would allow terrorist organisations to compete in their 2022 World Cup garnered.
Sure, it’s fun to watch Brazil versus Argentina but imagine tuning in to see Al-Qaeda v Hamas then being able to follow that up with traditional rivals, IRA v Real IRA.
Sarcasm aside, it’s probably worth having a look at our final presentation. There’s a cheeky one hundred dollar note in it for you if you can watch the entire thing and not cringe.
I haven’t thought of her for 17 years but where oh where was Tanya Blencowe when we needed her? Instead we got Elle MacPherson.
I’ll sum up what she said: “Um, yeah, hi, Australia, wow, um, hi, yeah, the World Cup, Frank Lowy, hi, yeah!”
Elle MacPherson played a huge part, let me repeat, a huge part, in my formative years and for the first time in my life, I couldn’t stand to look at her.
Then we had the video; the one with the kangaroo that stole the trophy and was chased by Mad Max, who was played by Hoges because the real Mad Max was unavailable due to, I’ll put this kindly, PR issues.
Although, considering his history and Qatar’s stance on Israel, I think I know which bid he was supporting.
And why did they pick Qatar?
I’ll leave the final word to my friend who has been living there for the last two years. I emailed him and simply asked: Can Qatar do it? His reply: “Easy. These guys never would have bid unless they planned to deliver it perfectly. They are very selective about what they get involved in and settle for nothing but the gold standard.
“Just watching the venues, transport and facilities materialise shall be amazing. They can commission major infrastructure unlike anyone else in the world. Basically, Qatar will blow the socks off it.”
Although I’m sure what he meant to say was: “We was robbed!”
Mahony
Guest
I am getting beyond the disspointment now and looking to football building on its stroing foothold (and dominance ion inter-code terms) in two emerging markets. 'FIFA - for the world, for the game'.
sydboz
Guest
then you are looking forward to your death, Qatar has the US HQ, wikileaks just leaked that on top of this Qatar has given the green light to use it's airstrips for a US attack on Iran, guess who Iran's number one target would be? oh yeah Qatar, same with pretty much anyone else. Yes, there are cheesy slaps on the back and oh well done messages happening at the moment but Qatar will fall over by the time 2022 rolls over and it will be Japan's, South Korea's, the USA's or Australia's for the taking. Come on AUSTRALIA 2022!!!
Realfootball
Guest
Can we please have no more WC 2022 articles? We didn't win, end of story. And we were never, ever going to win. I didn't think it would happen for a single moment. We were way out of our league. I predicted from the start we would be out in round 1. I am not happy to have been right. I simply could not see any objective reasons why the delegates would vote for us, particularly when Buckley managed to ensure that the main beneficiaries of our bid would be the AFL. That was the final nail in an already very solid coffin. The tragedy in all this was that the A League was put to the sword for nothing. What one vote says to me is that Frank Lowy for once in his long and forensically efficient business career let emotion cloud his judgement. The next instance of this uncharacteristic failing was when he reappointed Mr Buckley.
eric
Guest
Why do people still bring up the final presentation?Dozens of articles written after the decision, all about how bad our final presentation was.Pretty obvious that everyone had made their mind up before sitting through final presentations.The English final presentation was arguably the best from the 2018 bidders and did it help?
THE NSL
Guest
What did you want grosso to do when lucas neill decided to lie down in front of him in the box
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
I'm not blaming Australia losing purely on the referee, I'm also blaming it on Grosso going for a big award-winning dive and Gus Hiddink! Why Gus Hiddink I hear you ask? It's because he still had two substitutions to make and instead of putting Kennedy on (for Cahill) during regular time to try and finish the game off against a tiring Italian side, he elected to leave Cahill on who obviously could just NOT compete with the tall Italian defenders and waited for extra time! FAIL!!! The ref's decision was 50/50 like you said and it could've gone either way, but it seemed as if a 50/50 would always go against Australia...the ref's had a choice. The Red cards in South Africa were clean-cut red cards - the rules are clear and concise on that and the ref had no other option! Call it a grudge, but I'm sure you all thought we were hard done-by being penalised in the last minute of regular time. The only comforting thing to come out at the end of all that was that Italy were the eventual victors, which somewhat eased the pain knowing we lost to the 'would-be' champions!
MartyB
Guest
Agreed.. if you're blaming your loss on the ref you are just a sore loser. It is easy to scapegoat the ref when it doesn't go your way. Thank you for reminding me of that elbow - memory has made my day
MartyB
Guest
McKinsey also reckons the USA can meet its emmissions targets for 2020... what a surprise that USA came out top, and one of their serious competitors came last in their report. You can use statistics to prove anything - 78% of people know that.
vin
Guest
RedOrDead, the ref from the Aus V Italy game, was the same ref from the qualifier Aus v Uruguay. remember the popovic elbow on recoba when the ref let it go? that was an instant red card, it would have been game over for australia. my point is, decisions go both ways, win some lose some, we've had decisions go our way.
vin
Guest
Good luck to Qatar and the middle east, i hope they use the world cup to make a better world and hopefully it does open up barriers between the east and the west, as they say it will. its a good decision for fifa, excellent decision, our already rich country australia, is already first world, excellent living conditions, sports mad. fifa already know that by hosting a world cup in australia wont change the world or change the asian region too much, and being last in the Mckinsey report for revenue they also see us as a low priority to host it. now lets win the asian cup!
Darwin Stubbie
Guest
.. you weren't robbed in '06 - stop looking for excuses and apportion blame where it lies - a very poor piece of defending from Neil was the cause for Aussie's exit ... next you'll be saying the red cards in SA weren't deserving
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
I cared too! You can't get over something like this that easily! I'm still not over how the Socceroos were robbed in 2006 when Grosso decided to use the penalty box as a swimming pool as he dived into it! We were robbed then, we were robbed now! It's as if FIFA have something against Australia winning on the big stage!
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I was as passionate as any other football fan for us to host WC2022 but I'm so over it now. There's just far too much is happening in football ... all the time. Another terrific HAL match last night in Perth where the cellar-dwellers beat the contenders and a packed HAL fixture over the Christmas-NY period. I'm looking forward to visiting Qatar in 2022.
punter
Guest
I did.
Happy Hooker
Guest
Who cares?
Wotdoo
Guest
Get over it and move on. What were you expecting from FIFA
MartyB
Guest
I don't think people are upset that Qatar has won it, per se, as much as the manner in which it was won. - FIFA technical report highlighted Qatar's bid as "high risk" with a major flaws against it. - Sponsoring African Confederation Congress and locking out the other bid teams. - The voting being released publicly, despite even the FIFA ExCo members casting the votes being told it will remain private. - Qatar being a tiny landmass, too hot to play in Summer, with a mostly foreign population of less than a few million - They're building one stadium, a 45,000 seater, in a town of population 5,000... any claim to environmental sustainability is laughable. There is a long list of points you could go on to raise as potential issues with a cup to be held there, in terms of fan experience. Moving the Cup to a different time of year was never on the table for other bidders, and may have solved a few problems for some (e.g. we wouldn't have had issues with NRL & AFL). Leaving our bid aside, USA hosted the most profitable world cup EVER, and highest rating world cup EVER. Qatar beat them in a landslide... Then of course there are the rumours of the bribes. So, in saying that they can build it i think you're missing the point. Noone is doubting they can build it. The outrage is around the process of FIFA being clearly flawed, and wasting a lot of people's time and money. "FIFA: don't hate the player hate the game."
dasilva
Guest
So there are talks about FIFA moving the World Cup to January and then there are talks that Qatar would cohost this world cup with other neighboring countries IF this turn out to be true then it does turn out that Qatar couldn't handle the world cup in summer by itself and FIFA are a joke If they must have a world cup in the middle east they should have announced a january world cup at the beginning and announce only middle east country could host it and encourage countries to cohost it. Now they are just changing the goal post