Official Football Thread

I constantly hear that the only bid not associated with bribing is the Dutch/Belgium one (without the support of facts).

Eddies Wingman said:
Those who have allegedly received money were not expected to vote for England.
Click to expand...

Any more info on that?
 
Some more stuff:
Former FIFA VP: English media soured 2018 bid
A former FIFA vice president says the cash-for-votes bidding scandal that ousted two Ex-co members from Thursday’s vote could also cost England the 2018 World Cup.

Vyacheslav Koloskov, also former president of the Russian FA, told Russian media Tuesday that the Sunday Times investigations of Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii coupled with new allegations made Monday by a BBC Panorama documentary titled “FIFA’s Dirty Secrets” will compromise England’s chances due to no fault of the bid committee.

"If I were a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and were to test sympathy for England there, I would say that it had vanished,” he said. "That has nothing to do with the bidding team however. But when one member of a family is attacked – and the 24 members of the Executive Committee are like a family – it casts a shadow on all of them."

Koloskov also said the 2018 race is now between Russia and Spain-Portugal and that his country has the advantage.
"I'd like to believe we're starting with seven votes, plus or minus one,” he said. “And we'll finish, I hope, with 12."
 
Forostar said:
If people (whoever that may be) bribe UEFA members to vote for England (which needs to be checked securely) then who'd like to be responsible to give the World Cup to England? Not UEFA, if they want to show they have clean hands.
Click to expand...
I've not heard about this. I've not heard of any one trying to bribe UEFA folk for English votes. Like EW said, where has this come from?

Note that the alleged bribe happened over ten years ago. It's not to do with the 2018/2022 bids.
 
Forostar said:
"If I were a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and were to test sympathy for England there, I would say that it had vanished,” he said. "That has nothing to do with the bidding team however. But when one member of a family is attacked – and the 24 members of the Executive Committee are like a family – it casts a shadow on all of them."
Click to expand...

This really says a lot about FIFA ... their decisions should not be based on sympathy at all, but which bid is the best - from objective criteria that all the bidders should know. And the part I've highlighted in bold is fuel to the fire for those who think FIFA is nothing but a mafia.
 
Don't forget that this person is a Russian. And I am from Holland. We're concurrents.  :D

As Gullit said:
“It’s a little bit strange that a three-time finalist who has consistently been in the top-ten of the World Rankings has never had the opportunity to organise the World Cup. The Belgians have a lot of good talent too. This would be a great chance for FIFA to show humbleness to the smaller countries.”
 
Genghis Khan said:
The more I read on this from you guys, the less and less respect I have for the FIFA organization. :down:
Click to expand...

You have no idea. It's about politics rather than football, and England's bid has been damaged because English media has uncovered (lightly hidden) corruption and malpractice in the organisation.
In the Panorama progamme, Jack Warner (FIFA vice-president) was accused of selling tickets worth £1million I think at the past two World Cups, which an internal investigation had found him guilty of and ordered his company to pay an equal amount to a charity, yet he continues in his position. In any other organisation in any other industry he'd be out of there in a shot.
I don't think it's clear who bribes were meant to win votes for, but rather the fact that people on the voting committee were willing to take bribes for votes. I think it's worth mentioning that the English representitive was approached by the undercover newspaper and refused, as I'm sure did many others.
The England bid is no more attached to bribery and corruption than any other bid, it's simply that the corruption was uncovered by an English newspaper, completely unrelated to the bid team.
Incidentally the Spain-Portugal bid for 2018 and Qatar for 2022 have been accused of collusion (surely a good enough reason for not holding the two bids simultaneously), and the FIFA authorities seem to be fine with this.

It is surprising that a country with a footballing pedigree of Holland, a developed nation, with good stadia and infrastructure has never hosted the World Cup. Likewise I think it's outrageous that England haven't hosted it since '66, when meanwhile countries such as Mexico has hosted it twice. The whole bidding process is corrupt and misguided: why are heavywieghts such as England, Holland and Spain competing for one competition, and the next one is between Qatar(!), USA (a vast non-footballing country who hosted it just 16 years ago), Australia (non-footballing, huge, on the other side of the world) and Japan and South Korea who have both just hosted one. I really can't see any problem with European countries hosting the tournaments more than other continents - this is where football is run best.

The Dutch bid may be less likely to win because of the join with Belgium, as apparantly joint bids are looked upon less favourably as potential hsots. Forostar, do you know why the Netherlands couldn't host it themselves?

And I agree with Albie, I'm past caring whether England get this or not.

Sorry if I've repeated any of what's been said before.
 
Good question. Perhaps more possibilities of football stadia?
These two countries have proven they can do it together so I don't see what's the problem. And about 200 years ago we were one nation. There's quite a connection. :)

Whoever wins: are you guys curious about the final presentations? I am expecting a lot from the Dutch one. Even if we won't get the tournament, I still think this presentation itself will be convincing. *knocks on wood*
 
Last edited:
So Nush…to make sure I get this right.

Basically, what you're saying is that FIFA will punish England, not because the English bid was corrupt, or any more corrupt than any other, but because an English paper found out about the corruption.

Seems to me that FIFA is an organization very similar to the IOC. First rule of FIFA: don't talk about what we do at FIFA. Second rule of FIFA: don't talk about what we do at FIFA.

I think the bid may yet go to England from what I am reading, however, the next round is ridiculous. I hope the USA wins it.
 
I completely agree with Nush about the 2022 thing. Why have such a strict rotation policy? The majority of countries that have a mature football culture are in Europe and now only every 3rd World Cup is going to be played there? (SA 2010, Brazil 2014, then Europe in 2018 but not again until 2030?)

The bidders for 2022 are two who have hosted the World Cup after 1990 (USA and Japan/SK), one country where football (well, association football) isn't really big and a country with only one city? The idea of Qatar hosting a World Cup smells of megalomania from the Sheiks. I mean, what on earth does Qatar need ten brand new football stadia for?

One of the actual 2018 bidders for 2018, one of the other 2018 bidders for 2022 and then a non-European country for 2026, that would make more sense.
Now for something completely different: What's the coldest any of you have experienced while playing football? Tonight there's the match between Rosenborg BK and Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Europa League, here in Trondheim. The temperature has been steady around 258 K (-15 C) for the last week. That is actually quite cold, especially in a city close to the sea!

I guess the only country where one plays football in such temperatures regularly is Russia. (Just like in Norway, their domestic league ends in early November).
 
@Foro: Putin really should make an appearance. I'm not sure whether his presence will help or not, but at least he should turn up.

@EW: Bearing in mind the SE England will barely get below -2 C, it's unlikely I will have played football in that cold. But, we used to play rugby on frozen pitches at school. And that would tear your legs to shreds.
 
LooseCannon said:
So Nush…to make sure I get this right.

Basically, what you're saying is that FIFA will punish England, not because the English bid was corrupt, or any more corrupt than any other, but because an English paper found out about the corruption.

Seems to me that FIFA is an organization very similar to the IOC. First rule of FIFA: don't talk about what we do at FIFA. Second rule of FIFA: don't talk about what we do at FIFA.

I think the bid may yet go to England from what I am reading, however, the next round is ridiculous. I hope the USA wins it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how much the media "interference" will have damaged the England bid, but I'm more worried about the content of the revelations. I don't think England would originally have received as many votes as its bid merited, due to the politics and machinations of the committee who have agendas other than purely football ones. But FIFA do have this mentality of defending one of their own, so an allegation against one might affect another.
 
Right now the temperature is minus 5, but because of the east wind it feels like minus 15. No football today though. Next Friday there's a match, but it feels probably less cold because there will be less wind.
 
Last edited:
When I was an active footballer myself, we used to call off training if it was below -20 C. But coming from the very southeastern part of Norway, and by the sea, we didn't get those temperatures very often. I can only recall a few times when we had to call off training.

I think as long as it's not much wind, moderate cold isn't really a big problem for outdoor sports. As long as you keep moving, you'll stay warm enough.

BREAKING NEWS

It was just announced that Russia will arrange the 2018 FIFA World Cup! Well, I must admit that that was the one I favored the least ... I would have preferred England or Holland/Belgium. Well, this means that the World Cup goes to Eastern Europe for the first time.

... And the 2022 World Cup will be played in Qatar. What a load of rubbish.
 
Looking through pictures of the stadia they plan to build in Qatar for 2022. The word "megalomania" strikes me ... One of the stadia will be used by the university team of Qatar University after the World Cup. It has a 45.000 capacity ...
 
So, 2030 then. The plus point is that FIFA's committee will be mostly dead retired by then. ;)
 
Albie said:
So, 2030 then. The plus point is that FIFA's committee will be mostly dead retired by then. ;)
Click to expand...

Is 2026 out of question for European countries?

EDIT: Yes, it is. I had forgotten that the policy now is that every continent must wait two world cups ... which is a ridiculous rule, I think. This means only every third World Cup will be held in Europe, which has many countries capable of hosting it. I think it would be sufficient to say every continent would have to pass one tournament.

Anyway, the policy has been changing over the years and it will change again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top