Qatar World Cup 2022?? - Who would you award choose to host it

[Guest Ciaran The King]

Qatar 2022: Fifa sponsors back corruption investigation

 

Football's world governing body Fifa is under growing pressure from a number of sponsors after its decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

 

Sony, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa and Hyundai/Kia have expressed concern over claims of wrongdoing in the bidding process.

In total, five of Fifa's six main sponsors have issued statements relating to the Qatar bid.

Only airline Emirates has so far declined to comment.

 

Oil company BP and the maker of Budweiser beer, who also sponsor the World Cup, have also registered their concerns.

Qatar was chosen to host the World Cup in December 2010, beating off competition from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Fifa's ethics committee is already investigating allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar's successful bid, with a report due next month.

 

In response to the clamour for a fresh investigation, Fifa president Sepp Blatter has called for time.

He posted a message on his Twitter account at the weekend, insisting the organisation was taking the allegations seriously.

However, the concerns of a number of high-profile sponsors will increase the pressure on Fifa to act.

Vice-president Jim Boyce has already said he would support a re-vote if allegations of corruption are proven.

German sportswear company Adidas, which has a long-term sponsorship deal with Fifa that runs until 2030, said in a statement: "The negative tenor of the public debate around Fifa at the moment is neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners."

Coca-Cola added: "Anything that detracts from the mission and ideals of the Fifa World Cup is a concern to us."

 

Car manufacturer Hyundai/Kia said in a statement: "We are confident that Fifa is taking these allegations seriously and that the investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee will conduct a thorough investigation."

Fifa issued a statement from its marketing director Thierry Weil, in an attempt to calm the situation.

"We are in constant contact with our commercial affiliates, including Adidas, Sony and Visa, and they have 100% confidence in the investigation currently being conducted by Fifa's independent ethics committee," said Weil.

"Our sponsors have not requested anything that is not covered by the ongoing investigation by the ethics committee."

Last week, the Sunday Times newspaper alleged that Qatar's former Fifa vice-president, Mohamed bin Hammam, paid £3m to football officials around the world to help win support for Qatar in the run-up to the World Cup vote in December 2010.

Now Bin Hammam is facing claims he used his contacts in the Qatari royal family and government to arrange deals and favours to secure the tournament for his country.

 

According to the emails, some of which have been seen by the BBC, the 65-year-old Bin Hammam:

Visited Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin to discuss "bilateral relations" between Russia and Qatar a month before the votes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

 

Brokered government level talks for Thailand's Fifa executive Worawi Makudi to push a deal on importing gas from Qatar to Thailand. Makudi told the paper he did not receive a concession for his part in any gas deal.

 

Invited Germany's former Fifa executive Franz Beckenbauer to Doha just five months after the vote with bosses from an oil and gas shipping firm which was employing him as a consultant. The firm involved says it was exploring possible Qatari investments in the shipping and maritime sector but that no deal ever came from the talks. When approached by the Sunday Times, former German international Beckenbauer declined to comment.

 

Fixed meetings between nine Fifa executive committee members, including Blatter, with members of the Qatari royal family.

Arranged a meeting between the Qatar bid team and Uefa boss Michel Platini at European football's headquarters in Nyon. Platini, who has openly admitted voting for Qatar, says Bin Hammam did not attend the meeting and insists he has nothing to hide.

Qatar's World Cup organising committee reiterated it was confident the bid had been won fairly. Bin Hammam has so far declined to comment.

 

Emails leaked to the Sunday Times appear to demonstrate Bin Hammam, banned from football for life in 2012 for his part in another corruption scandal, was working to secure support for the Qatar bid.

But while that might be uncomfortable for Qatar and Fifa, it is not clear that he or the bid broke any of the governing body's bidding rules.

 

Fifa executive committee members were not subject to the same restrictions placed on bid officials, while all bidding nations used heads of state and senior government figures to try to win votes.

England's failed bid for the 2018 tournament used Prince William, the president of the Football Association, and Prime Minister David Cameron throughout the latter stages of their campaign.

It is also part and parcel of big sporting bids for countries to use them to try and broker big trade deals.

Fifa's chief investigator, lawyer Michael Garcia, must now consider whether to include the latest revelations in his long-running inquiry into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

He intends to wind up his investigation on 9 June before filing his report with Fifa's new adjudicatory chamber in the middle of July.

Fifa has confirmed to BBC Sport that Garcia will provide an update in person to delegates from 209 national associations in Brazil this week.

 

BBC Sport

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27751265

 

With demands being made that FIFA should investigate and or strip Qatar of the 2022 World Cup who would you like to see get it and more so who would benefit from it.

[BRM 220]

If they were to be stripped of it then the it would more than likely be a straight fight between Australia and the USA. Both can host it at relatively short notice with the infrastructure in place.

 

 

Australia would probably be my favorite as its technically new ground for the World Cup or maybe I'm just showing my age at being able to remember USA 94 quite clearly. Have no doubts that either country would be able to put on a amazing show though something that Qatar is just not going to be able to do.

[Guest Boyo]

First off I'll start by saying I don't think we'll see Qatar stripped of the World Cup, but I do think some FIFA people will leave their privileged positions. I think, as desparing as it sounds, too many people have died already in Qatar to stop the building of those stadiums and transport links. Plus, heat aside, when all's said and done, I do genuinely think Qatar will host a decent World Cup, especially for TV viewers.

 

Going off-topic for a second - I was talking about this this morning at work - the one thing I do forsee is that Qatar 22 will be almost a watershed moment in terms of corporate bigwigs taking seats from the regular fans. Every year, no matter the competition, we see more and more seats taken by corporate jollies and the remaining tickets on free sale are then ridiculously expenive. I can see Qatar being the absolute pinnacle of this. And then I think it will be a wake-up call, and the next few tournaments will be more fan-friendly.

 

However on topic, :P, I personally would award it to the USA. They're clearly going to be awarded one of the next ones but I personally feel 2018 or 2022 is the perfect time for the US to be given another shot. 1994 came too soon or too late for them, depending on your viewpoint. I remember US fans being absolutely baffled at the World Cup and McDonald's giving away tickets in Big Macs, and local schools were given handfuls of tickets because they couldn't sell them. This time around though, I think the US would want to do it right. I think their TV networks would make an absolute belter of coverage, their stadiums are already fit-for-purpose, their cities are phenomenal, transport links are good, weather is good, and me? Well I've got to say I enjoyed the football being jazzed up with the stars and stripes. The USA would go completely bonkers if given another World Cup.

 

If not them then either Australia or, if back in Europe, Italy. I'd love another Italia Cup :).

 

Cheers!

[Guest dpddave]

I'd like it to be as close to me as possible, so England. Spain or Germany would be fine as well. The Germans would probably be able to run this years World Cup at 2 days notice if they needed to. Edited June 10, 2014 by dpddave

[Guest John Hancock]

America was second in the voting, so that seems the fair pick. Also, the timing would be absolutely perfect. The next big soccer thing involving America, be it doing well in a World Cup, having an American player do well in Europe, or hosing a World cup, will solidify soccer in American culture. A recent ESPN poll said that American children like European soccer more than American baseball, another poll by ESPN found that soccer is the second most popular sport for Americans under the age of 25, and another ESPN poll found that almost ten percent of Americans list soccer as their favourite sport, which is three times higher than ice hockey, and would make it the fourth most popular sport in the country. The viewing figures for Euro 2012 were 50% higher than Euro 2008. A 50% increase in between competitions, that's enormous. USA vs. Mexico in the World Cup qualifiers was watched by almost twice as many people as the Stanley Cup final, the last World Cup was watched by almost twice as many people as the 2010 World Series.

 

The fuses are everywhere, FIFA just needs to bother lighting one of them.

[Shaun2J 127]

Regardless of Time-Zones and my only argument being, they've never had it, I'd pick Australia. It would probably be fun.

[Guest John Hancock]

Do they have the stadiums?

[Guest Boyo]

Yeah I think Australia would put on a cracking World Cup, too. I don't know about the stadiums though? I'm sure they've got a handful of suitable stadia available (or nearly ready) right now, but I reckon they'd need to spend a lot of money indeed to be proper ready.

 

Cheers!

[Shaun2J 127]

I think they have a few big stadiums that they also use for cricket, rugby and Australian rules football.

 

Have a look here. Also love that I found that site again.

 

http://www.worldstadiums.com/oceania/countries/australia.shtml

[Guest John Hancock]

Unless I'm mistaken, a World Cup requires 11 stadiums with capacities over 40,000, and one over 80,000. From that site, they've got enough stadiums to do it, although I'd be nervous about a big football game in a cricket field. I've seen soccer games in baseball stadiums, and it doesn't work at all. The acoustics and the feel are just completely off. It would work in rugby stadiums though, seeing it that it works in American football stadiums.

[BRM 220]

Of the 12 stadiums that the initial bid put forward I think 2 were cricket grounds. One of which is the 100,000 MCG in Melbourne which would be the likely venue for the final. The other would of been the Gold Coast Stadium which would a major upgrade. This upgrade is already happening however as it's the host venue for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

 

3 of the stadiums would however be in the Sydney area.

 

All stadiums that were put forward are all existing stadiums with some just needing upgrades. Nothing like we are seeing in Brazil, Russia and Qatar.

[Shaun2J 127]

Isn't Qatar building some of their stadiums from scratch only to demolish them after the world cup?

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, but that's Qatar. We're lucky they aren't planning to build them out of children's skulls.

[Guest FreeSpirit]

Keep it in Qatar. Conduct a full investigation into this bribery scandal and sack the greedy f*ckers if they are found guilty. I'm looking forward to a World Cup in Qatar, especially seeing all the new infrastructure pop up in that country over the next 8 years. Australia would be great for a 2026 World Cup!

[Evil Gringo 279]

Blatter was planning to run for re-election next year for another 4 years as president of FIFA but has been asked to step down by most of the European heads of their FA's or executives to FIFA after his claims that the investigation and allegations into the Qatar World Cup are due to racism.

 

No word on if he will step down and not seek yet another term as President (I think it will be his fourth) but given how tight he is with federation and executives from the developing world (it is rumoured he has bribed the crap out of people for votes every time he has won) he probably thinks he still has the backing to pull it off.