Qatar 2022

[nailsy]

Australia are now threatening to sue FIFA if the tournament is moved to the winter: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24122625

You can't really blame them to be honest as it looks like the bidding process was an absolute farce.

 

[tiger666]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24160879

World Cup 2022: Uefa members back winter tournament in Qatar

The prospect of a winter World Cup in 2022 took a step forward after Europe's football leaders agreed a summer event could not be played in Qatar.
The nation won a controversial bidding process to stage the competition, where summer temperatures can reach 50C.
Uefa's 54 member associations backed the move at a meeting in Croatia.
"What has come out of this meeting is that the World Cup cannot be played in Qatar in the summer," said Britain's Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce.
"Everyone was certainly in agreement about that."
Boyce added that the debate was now regarding whether it would be played in January 2022 or November and December of that year.
The British associations want to ensure their festive fixtures are protected for their domestic league seasons, while Uefa favour January so that it would not impact on the Champions League.
But Boyce, who is also a former president of the Irish Football Association, says the associations do not want Fifa to rush that decision.
"There is still nine years to go and people feel Fifa should sit down with all the major stakeholders and come up with a solution that would cause the minimum disruption to football.
"There is plenty of time to do that in my opinion, and hopefully football will be the winner."
The decision to move the World Cup to winter ultimately rests with the world governing body, but this backing sends a strong message from some of the most powerful bodies in international football.
Fifa's executive committee is expected to agree in principle to move the World Cup to the winter at its meeting in Zurich which begins on 3 October.
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke said the tournament might have to move location if a suitable time to play in Qatar could not be agreed, while Fifa's own medical chief, Michel D'Hooghe, advised that the risks posed to supporters by extreme heat are too great.
However, the head of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, Hassan al-Thawadi,has rejected calls for the tournament to be awarded to another country, despite Fifa president Sepp Blatter admitting the governing body may have made a "mistake" in awarding the competition to Qatar in the summer.
Earlier this week, Australia's soccer chief Frank Lowy said his country's Football Federation (FFA) may seek compensation if the 2022 World Cup is switched to the winter after his country lost out to Qatar.

 

[talkshowhost86]

What an absolute fuck up this whole thing has been from pillar to post.

I totally understand why it needs to be in the Winter, but if that was the case why the fuck was it not included in their bid in the first place?

I hope Australia sue the balls off them. I also hope that next time England bid for the world cup we tell the committee that we're going to have it in 300,000 capacity stadiums which hover in the air and are made of bits of Wispa. Clearly actually delivering what you promised in your bid isn't part of the process anymore so I say go for it.

 

[tiger666]

What an absolute fuck up this whole thing has been from pillar to post.

I totally understand why it needs to be in the Winter, but if that was the case why the fuck was it not included in their bid in the first place?

I hope Australia sue the balls off them. I also hope that next time England bid for the world cup we tell the committee that we're going to have it in 300,000 capacity stadiums which hover in the air and are made of bits of Wispa. Clearly actually delivering what you promised in your bid isn't part of the process anymore so I say go for it.

May as well just say we'll win it. Just as believable.

 

[dagraham]

Pathetic decision to award it to Qatar in the first place. Might as well twin it with Iran while we're at it.

North Korea can have the next one.

 

[KingKay]

Pathetic decision to award it to Qatar in the first place. Might as well twin it with Iran while we're at it.

North Korea can have the next one.

I'm not sure North Korea can afford to pay the kind of backhanders required. Would be interesting though.

 

[Kendall]

It's criminal really. What exactly has Qatar given the footballing world?

At least Aus have qualified for the tournament a few times on their own merit and are establishing a decent league in the A league. That's even before getting into the issue of staging the damn thing. June/July in Australia is the perfect climate for football, NT aside.

 

[dagraham]

I'm not sure North Korea can afford to pay the kind of backhanders required. Would be interesting though.

No problem. The "Dear Leader" will bullshit through the bidding process insisting they have the money for the bribes, the infrastructure and are reinstating free speech immediately.

FIFA are so dumb and corrupt they'd probably fall for it.

 

[tototoner]

Pathetic decision to award it to Qatar in the first place. Might as well twin it with Iran while we're at it.

North Korea can have the next one.

They don't have any cash

 

[talkshowhost86]

It's criminal really. What exactly has Qatar given the footballing world?

At least Aus have qualified for the tournament a few times on their own merit and are establishing a decent league in the A league. That's even before getting into the issue of staging the damn thing. June/July in Australia is the perfect climate for football, NT aside.

I'm not necessarily against giving a more 'obscure' footballing country a crack at hosting the World Cup. The more countries involved in the game the merrier as far as I'm concerned.

But they have to be able to guarantee that the locals will at least give a shit and show that they at least have the interests of the game in mind. Clearly Qatar doesn't have this at all and in fact by giving it to them we end up trampling over the history of the tournament by moving it to the middle of the season (for most players involved).

At the end of the day if Qatar had been honest at the start of this and said it'll have to be in Winter, I don't think they would have been picked. Which is why Australia have every right to be a tad pissed off.

 

[idontgetit]

Pathetic decision to award it to Qatar in the first place. Might as well twin it with Iran while we're at it.

North Korea can have the next one.

North Korea? With the level of outright corruption and disregard for the welfare of those under the authoritarian leadership I think North Korea would object to having anything to do with FIFA

 

[idontgetit]

I wonder how many signatures you could get on an online petition against Qatar holding the World Cup if you buzzed it around every football forum. Every single time I go on another clubs forum there seems to be a Qatar World Cup thread in the General Football section. Would be embarrassing for FIFA if it started getting in to the millions, easy bait for the press pressure to pick up on at least.

 

[idontgetit]

From the BBC comments page:
Sepp Blatter is apparently a huge fan of football in Qatar.

When asked who his favourite Qatar player was, he said "Jimi Hendrix".

 

[talkshowhost86]

I wonder how many signatures you could get on an online petition against Qatar holding the World Cup if you buzzed it around every football forum. Every single time I go on another clubs forum there seems to be a Qatar World Cup thread in the General Football section. Would be embarrassing for FIFA if it started getting in to the millions, easy bait for the press pressure to pick up on at least.

I suspect FIFA wouldn't give a flying fuck.

The World Cup doesn't seem to be about football fans anymore as the prices for matches and amounts of tickets given to corporates have shown.

 

[Gassin's finest]

I don't see the fuss. Clearly in 2022 top flight and international football will be played on a series of self sufficient, air conditioned floating stadiums which will fly round the world, allowing clubs like Man Utd, Real Madrid etc to play fixtures in their home nations of China and Singapore.

Different game these days son.

 

[Montasura]

I'm not necessarily against giving a more 'obscure' footballing country a crack at hosting the World Cup. The more countries involved in the game the merrier as far as I'm concerned.

But they have to be able to guarantee that the locals will at least give a shit and show that they at least have the interests of the game in mind. Clearly Qatar doesn't have this at all and in fact by giving it to them we end up trampling over the history of the tournament by moving it to the middle of the season (for most players involved).

At the end of the day if Qatar had been honest at the start of this and said it'll have to be in Winter, I don't think they would have been picked. Which is why Australia have every right to be a tad pissed off.

Certainly there was an onus on Qatar to mention the possibility at the start but I think those that made the decision to award it to them also need to shoulder some responsibility here.

At the end of the day I really can't see how moving it to the winter solves anything anyway, sure that will cause havoc with the domestic seasons of most of the main countries!!

 

[idontgetit]

The point of a petition wouldn't be to get FIFA to change the venue (although that would be a huge bonus). It would be to draw intense media focus on their fucking appalling service to football and their dirty, corrupt fucking system.

It wouldn't necessarily need to be worded so as to change the venue, which may alienate people as it's unrealistic, but to simply condemn FIFA as inept for picking Qatar as the host nation.

Bounced around British Football forums like this it would gain thousands and thousands of online signatures. Facebook and Twitter would bounce it higher. If it get's big enough through these mediums the UK press would pick it up, maybe even campaign behind it, and drive the signatures in to the millions. The European press would pick it up if it's in our papers and they would fucking hate a Qatari world cup as much as us, let alone what the Aussies/States/Japanese/Korean press makes of it. An international petition in the tens of millions would give the world press licence and ammo to go after FIFA guns blazing. That kind of intense media attention on corruption and incompetence might hopefully see us with a better governing body for the beautiful game.

P.S Thankfully there's no more fucking optimistic rating!

 

[cwy21]

Will there be a legal response from the USA or Australian FA against FIFA?? They lost the bidding process to a nation who said they could host a Summer World Cup in their bid.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

On a positive note, seeing our slide down the FIFA rankings there's a good chance we could get picked in a group with Qatar being the seeded club (as hosts).

 

[tototoner]

Will there be a legal response from the USA or Australian FA against FIFA?? They lost the bidding process to a nation who said they could host a Summer World Cup in their bid.

Heard earlier today that Australia set to sue Qatar, not FIFA