World Football Thread XX: Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

[C0ckney]

swansea fans have entered the ground with loads of tangerine coloured balloons, love it. the cardiff fans certainly don't.

[C0ckney]

swansea for the prem, cardiff for administration

[duke o' york]

Anyone seen CortHaus about?

[MOBIUS]

swansea for the prem, cardiff for administration

****!

Still, Cardiff totally didn't deserve to win that game, so fair play to the Swans.

[Cort Haus]

Anyone seen CortHaus about?

Yeah, fair play to your lot. We were dreadful - again, as we were losing at home to West Brom.

I'm just hoping we don't play that badly at home to Spurs tomorrow.

[Dauphin]

You passed the lurgie to Chelski.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And the 2018 World Cup is to be held in... Russia (shockingly enough)!

[Imran Siddiqui]

And the 2022 WC goes to.... Qatar

[C0ckney]

well russia was the corrupt country is the bidding process, so it's no surprise that the corrupt bastards at FIFA chose them. solidarity and all that.

and yeah, 2022 in qatar, that footballing powerhouse.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I guess I can understand Qatar in the sense that FIFA wants to spread the World Cup to places it hasn't been before (what with South Africa in 2010, etc), and the Middle East is a market that hasn't been fully explored (or exploited).

[Krill]

Yeah, Qatar I can understand, OTOH, who is actually going to want to go there in person to watch the games? In that sense, can't really agree with the pick.

And now we wait to see what the IOC does...Personally can't see Russia being a good choice from a monetary stand point because of the time zones, nor because of the logistical problems.

[onodera]

There's just a two-hour difference between Russia and continental Europe. The Japan/Korea cup was much worse from that perspective.
But man, the amount of money my country will lose through corruption is staggering. First the Olympics and then the FIFA World Cup...

[Cort Haus]

It's maybe too wide to embed without breaking the thread, but this

Risk Assessment

shows that Quatar is the only high-risk bidder, and they got it. This guff about new places is rubbish. Why did Germany just host one for the 2nd time since 1974? Why is that remote footballing outpost, Brazil, hosting the next one?

Football in the desert at 50 degrees centigrade. What a great idea.

FIFA

Oh, and Japan and South Korea trying to get a gain after only just hosting one? - greedy ****s.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I dunno why you think the new places concept doesn't fly. Yeah, Germany and Brazil hosted/ are hosting, but you can't just have ALL new places without the traditional powers in the mix. I mean look at the choices since 1990: Italy (2nd time), USA (new and shocking at that point in time), France (2nd time), South Korea/Japan (new), Germany (2nd time), South Africa (new), Brazil (2nd time). This time they picked two new places, but let's face it, in the end for the 2022 Cup, there were 2 countries that just fairly recently had a WC and then Australia and Qatar. Am I disappointed the US didn't get it, yes, but I understand.

[Cort Haus]

It would have been wrong if either Japan, Korea or USA got it again so soon. 2026 will probably be Argentina, and 2030 will probably be Spain *again*. 2034 in the USA. I'll never see the WC in my country in my lifetime now. I shouldn't care really because it's not actually a very good tournament but I'd still like it here.