World Cup 2018

[Torslanda]

Oh! Good!

Something else we don't have to spend billions of quids on and spend the rest of our lives paying for.

[Clandy]

Oil 1. Football 0.

[Domestique]

And Lord Coe can feck off now as well 

[Manotea]

Money has spoken. Qatar for 2022.

Anybody care to price this in terms CO2 emissions?

Maybe they'll hold it in winter.

Would be sensible but do they have a say as to when the tournament runs? I'd have thought not.

Leaving aside the a/c bill, I was thinking about the building of hotels and stadia and then relocating (most of?)them to other countries after the event.

[Jaded]

Oh! Good!

Something else we don't have to spend billions of quids on and spend the rest of our lives paying for.

The England bid was the most profitable of them all. A surplus generated.

[FatBloke]

I guess it's no surprise that one of the most corrupt sport organizations awarded this event to one of the most corrupt countries!   

Still, an English World Cup would have driven me nuts!   

[oncemore]

YES! RESULT!!!

And of course that which FatBloke says.

[Adrian]

Of the two votes for England, one was from England 

We presume.

[Adrian]

You know that the writing must have been on the wall all along when you read that for  Nicolas Leoz, Panorama accused and member of the voting panel, his favourite football match of all time was Argentina's 2-1 defeat of England during the 1986 World Cup.

He is Paraguayan not Argentinian and his most treasured footballing memory is of a match where England were first cheated and then humiliated. They really must all hate us.

Edit

I use the word us in the sense of us English. Apologies to anyone who I have casually excluded by doing so.

[Torslanda]

Oh! Good!

Something else we don't have to spend billions of quids on and spend the rest of our lives paying for.

The England bid was the most profitable of them all. A surplus generated.

Couldn't give a flying, mate. It wasn't ever going to contribute anything to the finances in this house.

Yes. I am that selfish.

[Manotea]

I'm wondering what tipped the balance in favour of Russia. Could it be the latest Wikileaks shenanigins persuaded Putin that he would use the World Cup as a show of strength to the rest of the world, and made FIFA (well, some of the voting delegates), "an offer they couldnt refuse"?

Which ever way you cut it, two votes is pretty humiliating for Cameron & Co.

Be interesting to see how our free press report it over the next few days.

[Clandy]

I saw this elsewhere, and it sums things up nicely I think:

Fifa committee - Loves money
Russia - Massive oil reserves
Qatar- Massive gas reserves
England - Nectar points

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The media whinging about England not getting the world cup is already as annoying as the media whinging about England not winning the world cup.

[Jaded]

It was bloody obvious we wouldnt get it after the same media tore into FIFA's Ethics Committee these last few years.

I'm not really sure why everyone (in the media) is so surprised.

[groucho]

I'll guess if you want to watch either the 2018 or 2022 competitions, then Mr Murdoch will want his wad as well!

[Adrian]

I'll guess if you want to watch either the 2018 or 2022 competitions, then Mr Murdoch will want his wad as well!

I want it to be sufficiently expensive that I am put off watching. I am tiring of the cycle of expectation and disappointment and especially tiring of my participating in said cycle.

[LEE]

I'm glad we didn't get it (and I'm a football fan).

I don't want thousands of foreign football fans having a good time in England after the hosts are knocked out in the first round.

The only thing that was done wrong was not stating clearly that the aim was to take the World Cup to new regions. There's nothing wrong with that aim, it's a very good aim in fact, but they should have told us up-front not to bother wasting £50million on the English bid.

If they DID make that clear, then someone responsible for the English bid should have pulled out immediately.

PS.  Where do I get one of these jobs, flying around the world for 4 years, attending great functions, meeting loads of celebs and all under the guise of "bidding" for an event?

[Manotea]

Running the World Cup in Russia (vaguely defendable) and Qatar (not) is the final nail in the coffin of irrelevance to me.

A bit like abandoning traditional F1 circuits in favour of the Middle East, though to be fair, the Middle East is probably F1's natural home, in a Final Destination sort of way.

As noted upthread, it's a shame FIFA hadn't mentioned the high priority attached to developing the game in new regions as then we could have saved ourselves the bother of bidding. In his presentation David Beckham spoke of Footbalss's ability to change lives in places like South Africa, Thailand and Sierra Leone, so maybe he had his finger on the pulse after all.

[oncemore]

Presumably delegates visited the contenders? I rather imagine that the "entertainment" laid (sic) on for them in Russia was more, shall we say, "interesting" than in UK. "Never mind the stadia....where're the night clubs and escorts? And Olga's three sisters will also be here when we visit to assess progress? Here's my vote."

Allegedly.

[mattc]

Presumably if the FA are sufficiently miffed with FIFA they would boycott the whole competition?

We could start a UK Football "World Series" !

[Adam]

I'm disappointed in the result, but mainly due to the fact we won't have gloriously empty roads to cycle on during 2018 as all those Ingurland fans would have been corralled in various stadiums.

Oh well.

[LEE]

Running the World Cup in Russia (vaguely defendable) and Qatar (not) is the final nail in the coffin of irrelevance to me.

A bit like abandoning traditional F1 circuits in favour of the Middle East, though to be fair, the Middle East is probably F1's natural home, in a Final Destination sort of way.

Given that all English Premiership clubs will be owned by Russian/Middle-Eastern oil Barons by the time of the World Cups, it seems like a natural home for Football as well.

[Greenbank]

Best letter for a long time in the Times today...

Sir, Is it time for the FA to reinstate Lord Triesman?

David Blunkett, MP
House of Commons

[Domestique]

One positive from me out of all this, it was good to David Beckham supporting the World Aids Day cause 

[andyoxon]

BBC News - Mayor of London Boris Johnson cancels Fifa hotel stay

   Go Boris.