Any preferences here? I’d like to see England get it, but they won’t, despite their wonderful ambassadorial team, the “Three Lions” of David Cameron, David Beckham and Prince William. But the inclusion of the future Queen Kate would have impressed Sepp Blatter no end, I feel, with some sort of indecent proposal clinching the deal.
Russia will probably win. I imagine they have the superior ability to bribe FIFA, which the gentlemanly English lack. Spain '82 was the best World Cup ever so it would be a good venue too but I don’t know why they aren’t bidding alone. If they felt unable to mount a solo bid they should have included all of the PIGS countries, not just the Portuguese.
Has to be between the US and Australia for 2022, doesn’t it? Qatar FFS? Melbourne Cricket Ground for the final sounds good.
sid and others, I would appreciate it if you could revert back to me on the below queries please:
Are they announcing both the 2018 and 2022 venues tomorrow?
Why are England not favourites? Home of football, stadia and infrastructure in place, many years since they last hosted it etc etc. Shit campaign, high quality opposition bids or bribery?
What are the expected outcomes?
Why does Qatar have a good chance?
I’d be keen to attend a World Cup at some stage so England or Spain/Portugal would have great potential.
2022 seems a bit shit. I’m not feeling Australia with games taking place in cricket grounds - think how crap football was in Croke Park - and the timezone situation. FIFA might be hit by lost advertising revenue if the games are taking place in the middle of the night for the football supporting countries in Europe and South America.
[b]Part of Australia’s argument is that the Asian market will be bigger by then so more money. Much prefer to see them get it than fucking Qatar. Japan and Korea have some nerve bidding again considering they only hosted it 8 years ago.
Time gap is a bit more manageable in our summer - some of the RUF matches in June don’t finish until well after 1pm our time for instance.[/b]
Baffled as to why Qatar is getting any consideration - isn’t it tiny? According to Wikipedia it’s only 4,000 square miles (Ireland is 32,000 square miles). Be a terrible World Cup. According to a Guardian article last week everything would be in one city too.
Every World Cup should be in Germany, the perfect country for hosting big tournaments.
I’m hoping for:
England 2018
USA 2022
I’m expecting:
Russia 2018
USA 2022
EDIT: Presume you can’t really booze in Qatar either apart from in hotels? Can you advertise alcohol there? Can’t see the big sponsors such as Budweiser and Heineken and Four Loko being too happy about a World Cup in a dry country.
Some bird on Matt Cooper was saying the English are very confident for tomorrow and the Russians seem a lot less confident today than they had previously. Valdimir Putin has also said he won’t be traveling for the announcement which the English are seeing as a signal of defeat on the Russian side.
Iberian bid would be my preference too. Think tickets would be more of a hassle in England and every fucker would just pop over to England and take up all the decent tickets.
Going to Russia would be cuntish for all sorts of reasons. At least you’d head over to England cheaply and have people to stay with etc. No comparison if you want to actually go to the games in fariness. Even if Ireland don’t get there I reckon they’d make a great tournament too, with great crowds etc. When’s it being announced?
Its being announced at about 1pm Swiss time on Thursday. I reckon Spain 2018 and Qatar 2022. The reason being that both countries have done a deal to get their voting blocks on side for each others respective bids.
Apparently Putin won’t go to it as he’s disgusted with corruption, something foreign to Russians.
Qatar would be a disaster. I’m hoping to fuck it’ll be Australia for 2022, the asian market might be the thing that does it for Aus. The fact that Paul Hogan starred in the Aussie presentation video may count against us.
Beckham the real weak link in that 3 man ambassador team. What bright spark came up with the idea of putting a journeyman footballer from Chingford in with two of Eton’s most distinguished alumni.