FIFA Bribery Scandal

[Teddy KGB]

If England wasn't such a big market, the FA would probably be banned by now lol

It's all because of those damned assh*les stealing the Falklands man!

[magik9113]

for the record, I liked the silver goal idea

I really would like to see Platini take over. He's no saint, but I believe he has some morality left in him

[jerrod]

"But with the English bid I said: Let us be brief. If you give back the Falkland Islands, which belong to us, you will get my vote. They then became sad and left."

cool story

sounds like a request for a bribe to me

[King of Troy]

Jeeeeeesus the Qataris actually did bribe FIFA... and here I was thinking this was just the British bid organizers having sour grapes

There is no way Qatar legitimately wins a bid for the World Cup. They have no soccer history to speak of, no quality players, no national team, no infrastructure, no stadiums. All they have is money.

All of that and they were still a better choice than England or the US!

I honestly don't get why people cry about Qatar, man. Goes to a new place, and they're going to fund an incredible cup. Win/Win. Football is for everyone, not just Western Europe.

[IronChef]

Gimme a break. Plenty of countries haven't had a World Cup. You know, ones with a footballing history, and fan base. The Qatar proposal is a joke.

[J.Kim]

Jeeeeeesus the Qataris actually did bribe FIFA... and here I was thinking this was just the British bid organizers having sour grapes

There is no way Qatar legitimately wins a bid for the World Cup. They have no soccer history to speak of, no quality players, no national team, no infrastructure, no stadiums. All they have is money.

All of that and they were still a better choice than England or the US!

I honestly don't get why people cry about Qatar, man. Goes to a new place, and they're going to fund an incredible cup. Win/Win. Football is for everyone, not just Western Europe.

There's far better places with a much richer Football history, fan base, infrastructure and government support that this could've gone to.

In fact, all four of the other nominations for the 2022 World Cup would've been far better options.

[MitchellUK]

Jeeeeeesus the Qataris actually did bribe FIFA... and here I was thinking this was just the British bid organizers having sour grapes

There is no way Qatar legitimately wins a bid for the World Cup. They have no soccer history to speak of, no quality players, no national team, no infrastructure, no stadiums. All they have is money.

All of that and they were still a better choice than England or the US!

I honestly don't get why people cry about Qatar, man. Goes to a new place, and they're going to fund an incredible cup. Win/Win. Football is for everyone, not just Western Europe.

Fine, but take it to a country that has a legitimate football presence and sporting infrastructure. Oceana's never held a World Cup, and from all reports, the Aussie bid was outstanding. They've got a national team that has competed on the biggest stage, they have players playing in some of the world's top leagues and they have shown the in the past they are capable of hosting huge events.

Why, when a country with a pedigree like that has submitted an excellent bid, are we talking about taking the biggest football competition in the world to a nation that has zero footballing history, no use for the stadiums they will build outside of the tournament itself, and a climate that requires matches to be played on air-conditioned pitches because they would be at genuine risk of dropping dead on the field if asked to play in the 50 degree heat? Because that second nation is a rich one.

[IronChef]

They're gonna block out the sun with artificial clouds, sounds awesome.

Australia, Mexico, Holland, Belguim, hell give it to Ireland, they've never had it, any of those are a better choice than Qatar.

[Teddy KGB]

Give it to Russia ffs

[Sleepy]

I think it's pretty much self-evident that Qatar was a baaad choice.
To add another reason: Qatar is so small that all the different fans will be packed in the same space for a month. That's a major security risk. Even if far less hooligans will make the trip because of the huge costs, it's still a bad idea to have Serbian, German, English, Dutch, whatever fans crammed up altogether in one city.

That alone should have finished Qatars bid with the FIFA...

[MitchellUK]

So the BBC were saying yesterday that on 17 F.As supported England's suggestion that the FIFA election should be re-arranged, while 172 were happy to go ahead as normal. A couple of people came out and said things along the lines of the election and the current allegations of poor governance and corruption were separate issues.

I'm astonished, I thought that when both candidates had been publicly named in the corruption allegations, with one of them being suspended, and with the incumbent president having presided over the era in which such corruption and poor governance have occurred, the issues were very much related.