I'm so glad Australia lost the 2022 World Cup bid

Kane you are seriously deluded if you think Australias economy is humming along, or stronger than Brazils. Not sure what paper it is you read, but I suggest you start reading a little more, and a little more widely. Hosting a World Cup would indeed have a trickle down effect, and be good for tourism to boot, but it would cost a tremendous amount, and the impact on soccer in the country would not be massive. The population just doesnt exist, or is too widely spread to fill large stadiums on a weekly basis across multiple codes. Concussion data and the ensuing regualtions will be a real boon for soccer though, at a grass roots level. More so than hosting a world cup. But I agree it would be a fabulously memorable event.

Australia v Qatar will be interesting next month. Can we call it the "2022 Derby"? Or maybe "They Took Our Currrrpppp" grudge match?

The notion of the 2022 World Cup providing a reason/timeline was half the problem. The 'carrot' of stadium upgrades and developments was put to the other codes - and for the AFL in particular that carrot was pretty stale if 2022 was to be the timeline. Since the 2009 bid building process that culminated in the 2010 bid book submission - we've seen for AFL the following : Metricon Stadium (Gold Coast), Skoda Stadium (Homebush), Adelaide Oval, Kardinia park (Geelong) continues to grow and MCG some Govt money (finally) into the Great Southern Stand, and even the SCG has been upgraded. And Perth is finally looking like happening. The AFL just had no reason to delay things to a 2022 timeline. Let alone that that would probably see a whole bunch of half-baked stadia developments and redevelopments that suited neither the oval sports nor the rectangular sports. The main problem re stadia is generally the rectangular ones where they seem more tied to Govt funding - perhaps because the codes don't like putting up their own cash when it so easily benefits their rectangular field rivals. The AFL has stumped up a heap of cash into stadiums (relative to the other codes especially). The associated other aspect here was the Etihad battleground - as by 2022 the AFL would anticipate having bought out Etihad - which otherwise they will assume ownership of come 2025 (having put in $30 million up front for that right).

Well said.

Actually, apologies for that, comes off as rather more heated than I would have liked.

Wouldn't be better that FFA, Clubs and govrrnments work on improving stadiums and developing grassroot football? The one issue is future of football without depending of other codes. We need better visions

Be informed before comment. Brasil is the 7th strongest economy on the world while Australia is the 12th...Still they have lots of problems at home because World Cup expenses.

Where is the crisis though? The whole thing started once Rudd wanted to change the way we do business, Murdoch who had been buddies with him til then decided to take him down so he'd keep making money 3-5 years later we have the Abbott Government and a budget which is horiffic.

By that argument Germany (who held their final on an oval) lack the sufficient maturity also? The whole notion of football 'maturity' is absurd. Its a concept pedalled by eurosnobs and pseudo football intellectuals to mask their cultural cringe. We either meet the technical standards to host the FIFA World Cup or we don't. As it happens - we blitzed this part of the bidding process and the FIFA Technical Committee said so in its report.

2022 World cup final will be hold in a city that doesn't exist (new city to be built) Lusail ..in a country with 1.7 million people

These one off events are now financially out of control. A country should no longer bid for a single World Cup or Olympics, but for say 5 such events over say a 20 year period, and when their stadia are finally worn out, then a new country should bid for the next 20 years. The alternative is to spilt them up across countries, that way the best facilties across the world could be utilised for each sport.

I don't think Australia, as a football nation, is ready or mature enough to host the Football WC. I don't think any of the Cricket/AFL stadiums should be used to host WC matches and I don't think Rugby/Football grounds should be considered until they consistently provide a decent playing surface. So until we have large rectangular stadiums around the country with world class surfaces, don't even entertain the idea. Then there is also the lack of public and commercial support for the game in this country to consider. It really was a bid may way too early.

It would have damn all to do with the "Westralian footy moguls",& a hell of a lot more to do with the fact that the FFA is,like the AFL,basically Eastern States oriented.

Hah if you think Perth would see any World Cup action you're dreaming. Not if the Westralian footy moguls have any say in it. Why didn't we bid for an Asian Cup group?

It will be impossible to ever host a world cup here because of AFL and NRL interests coming first.

I don't think we had much chance of winning the World Cup bid, but we were encouraged by FIFA to bid to boost their ego. It would be embarassing for FIFA if only one or two countries bid. My biggest regret is that the 40 million dollars was not spent on realising the NPLs and FFA Cup sooner.

Curious....just a fortnight ago the Victorian Government et al were spruiking an Olympic bid. Why no op-eds on the desirability or lack thereof, of holding the Olympics in bleak city?

"Ask the public sector worker that thought he was going to retire at 61 and is now going to be working until 67 if he is pleased to continue working to “put Greece on the map”" You mean like the rest of us here in Oz born after 1957... 67 is when we become age pension eligible as well. Part of the problem with the Greeks is they were retiring as early as 52 years of age on govt pensions. Little wonder the Germans who also work into their mid-60's were reluctant to bail them out unless they toughened up a bit. Leaving buildings with the roofs unfinished to avoid paying the taxes on them and other such rorts dont help either. Very little to do with hosting an Olympics though, although it is sad to see such magnificent infrastructure go to ruins. I doubt very much that Australia would have similar problems if it hosted a WC. The balance sheet may not be positive purely in terms of total spent vs total direct revenue, but the indirect benefits would be hard to calculate in terms of extended holidays, word of mouth from happy toursits, global exposure etc. not to mention the four football codes that would all benefit from the upgraded stadia. A lot of the secondary venues (training facilities etc) would need improvement as well which would flow on to the lower tiers of the codes as well.

Why are you making comparisons to the Olympics? Do it right and compare it to what's appropriate - previous World Cups. Fair enough Brazil needed to generate interest in football like Messi needs an extra ten bucks, and I'll admit I'm not very clued in with the state of domestic football in South Africa but: Germany - WC had a massive effect on the Bundesliga catching up with the other elite domestic tournaments in Europe. There's possibly only one or two stadiums that aren't still used continually and full to the brim on a regular basis. Japan and Korea - Probably didn't have to gamble as much financially having the tournament split over two countries but both the K and J league have thrived since. France - football was not really revolutionised by the tournament but it hardly their domestic or international agenda either; they're now preparing for Euro 2016 so they've hardly been scared off the prospect of playing host. Plus they won the damn thing. Couldn't have hurt. USA - probably the most similar to us in relation to where the game sits in society (I dare say we probably give football more respect here than they did in the US back in the 90's) and if you look at where the game is there now, 20 years later, it's thriving. They used the tournament to not only announce themselves to the world game but also announced the world game to their own people who hadn't allowed themselves to be exposed to it prior. It's hardly done them any harm, their over eagerness to play host again is proof of that surely. I think the success rate of World Cups, in countries with the appropriate economies, is much better than that of the Olympics.

It seems as though the Olympics and the World Cup are always a bit of a poisoned chalice these days. However, some countries handle the chalice better than others. Looking at the pictures of Athens it's apparent that permanent buildings were constructed solely for individual minority sports. What would they use a beach volleyball arena for after the games? To London's credit a lot of these smaller-supported sports were at least housed in cheap, temporary locations that have since been dismantled. Similarly South Africa and Brazil both built huge white elephant stadiums for their World Cups. Many of South Africa's stand empty, or used by sports teams that attract only tiny attendances; and what will the Brazilian city of Manaus, with its trio of lowly ranked semi-professional football teams, do with its shiny new 41,000 seater stadium? Germany meanwhile have top flight teams packing out most, if not all, of the stadiums built/redeveloped for the 2006 World Cup. Like others here I disagree that the Games caused Greece's crisis, the situation there is far more complex than that, but I will agree that they can't have helped. Personally I'd like to see the likes of the IOC and FIFA dictate that any bids for their events have to show what will become of the venues after the games/tournament has gone, then take that information into account when assessing all bids. While the organisations' official may be happily lining their pockets with freebies and cash for votes now, there will likely come a time when many nations will think better of bidding, knowing that they'll have to spend a lot of money for only 2 or 4 weeks of glory and publicity.