FIFA World Cup 2018 and 2022 Host Nation(s) (Warning: Spoilers!)

[Touring Mars]

Live coverage: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/bidders/live/index.html

(Live coverage (in the UK) also on BBC Radio 5 Live... )


And the winners are:

2018 FIFA World Cup Hosts are:- Russia

and for 2022:

2022 FIFA World Cup Hosts are:- Qatar





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[waggles]

I've stayed up to watch it-really hope Australia gets it for 2022. You won't believe how much crap we've gone through to guarantee the MCG for some games.

Russia probably isn't a good idea for 2018-if their first GP is meant to be then, there will be heads rolling if things go wrong. I'd like it to be the Netherlands.

 

[Touring Mars]

Hmmm, BBC are reporting that the Press Association have leaked the result - I'm watching the announcement live, and yet apparently the result is known already

edit: They were right... Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.

 

[lpb-nissan-gt-r]

Well done russia its going to be cold though

 

[Touring Mars]

Qatar win the 2022 bid...

Should be interesting, but a big disappointment for both England and Australia...

 

[C6R GT2]

Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022....atrocious. Awful just awful.

 

[C-ZETA]

Well, Russia seems good enough as a footballing nation but Qatar? What sort of place in football have they ever had?

 

[Robin]

Pretty good results, you can be sure they going to be exciting venues. These are also emerging markets which seem to be winning most of the bids for various international events at the moment. Ever since the success of the Beijing Olympics there has been loads of focus on choosing totally new places.

The reasons are that they are interesting new places for such events that people never have never seen before and crucially they also they are the ones which have the most cash to throw at events like this so its likely they can make an impression. England is broke and we have enough football anyway. Jusk look at our cheap and cheerful Olympic stadium, its an embarrassment!

 

[Wiegert]

Judging by Qatar's past qualifying efforts, hosting the world cup is probably the only way they can ever take part in it. Who knows, they might be able to put together a good team by 2022, which I would like to see.

 

[Touring Mars]

Judging by Qatar's past qualifying efforts, hosting the world cup is probably the only way they can ever take part in it.

They stole our idea!

Scotland ought to launch a joint bid with the United Arab Emirates. They can provide the money, we'll bring the Irn Bru and the macaroons.

I heard one guy on Radio 5 claim that the reason the England bid failed was because the Birmingham supporters rioted last night. Comedian Mark Watson noted, however, that it was unlikely that the FIFA delegates were watching the Quarter Finals of the Carling Cup...

 

[Casio]

I think money had changed hands enough that these bids were decided weeks if not months ago.

 

[Alex.]

England were never going to get it, no matter how many important figures we lobbed out to Zurich. It was probably rigged to begin with but; Look at the last world cup, the venues, the area, we have nothing on SA. Everyone who came over here would be robbed blind by insane food and accommodation prices as our government tries to make the most of a rare chance to help our desperate economy and now world image too.

It should've gone to Spain/Portugal and Australia.

 

[DK]

World Cups help the economy? *runs off to bribe FIFA officials so Ireland can host the 2026 World Cup*

 

[Casio]

England were never going to get it, no matter how many important figures we lobbed out to Zurich. It was probably rigged to begin with but; Look at the last world cup, the venues, the area, we have nothing on SA. Everyone who came over here would be robbed blind by insane food and accommodation prices as our government tries to make the most of a rare chance to help our desperate economy and now world image too.

It should've gone to Spain/Portugal and Australia.

My issue isn't with FIFA treating it like a business and trying to get money to develop the game and overtake the world. But pretending trying to pass it off as having the best show and sporting event in the world, and then basically palming it off to third world countries. No offence to Russia, but it'll be half the World Cup than if it was held by England or Spain.

Qatar are building all these crazy stadiums, but what are they going to do with them after the World Cup is finished? See South Africa 2010...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Russia probably isn't a good idea for 2018-if their first GP is meant to be then, there will be heads rolling if things go wrong. I'd like it to be the Netherlands.

Russia's first Grand Prix is due to be held in 2014, shortly after the Winter Olympics. Four years before the World Cup (although the IOC might try and convince them to bump it back to 2015). If they can manage an Olympics and a Grand Prix at the same venue (the circuit winds through the Sochi Olympic Village) mere months apart, the 2018 World Cup should be a cakewalk.

It should've gone to Spain/Portugal and Australia.

Australia was never going to get it. It's pretty telling that we only got one vote. The importance of football has been overplayed in recent years, and so I think expectations were way too high. We had a good run in the 2006 World Cup, but we were aided by a good draw in the group stage and a few other results that went our way. At lot of people had incredible expectations going into South Africa, with more than a few people believing that Australia could and would beat Germany in their first game. Honestly, we were lucky that our defeat wasn't ten times greater because as a footballing nation, we're really quite backwards. We're only just beginning to develop, so the juggernauts of Germany and England just roll right over us.

And based on the presentation, it's little surprise we failed. Snippets were shows of every other bidding nation's presentations at some point or other, and each one at least dedicated a bit of time to the actual importance of football in the country. The Australian presentation was mostly made up of celebrities talking the place up, artistic shots of cityscapes and an animated kangaroo bouncing through it all. It's like they were trying to get the FIFA committee to take a holiday here, not bid for a major international sporting event. But no, just about everything in the past few days has been skewed to favour us. The bidding scandals that erupted were always reported in a way that meant Australia came out looking better than the competition; Prince William's comments about Australia being a favourite were reported as Australia being the favourite and so on.

 

[YSSMAN]

Qatar win the 2022 bid...

Should be interesting, but a big disappointment for both England and Australia...

As an American, I'm really disappointed as well. My friends and I were all super excited about the fact that the US was being considered so heavily for the 2022 World Cup, but as always, we just end up being disappointed. I would have thought, given the popularity of football in High School and College level athletics, not to mention the impressive run for Team USA this year, and the increasing popularity of the MLS across the country... It would have been a no-brainer.


Guess we'll have to wait until the next set of Olympic bids come up. Damn you Rio!

 

[Barra333]

I'm a bit disappointed that Australia didn't get the 2022 cup, but not surprised. I am surprised however, that Japan, Korea and USA all polled more votes than AU because they all hosted quite recently. There are plently of countries who haven't hosted before that should get a run before those three go again.
Also, it will be super hot in Qatar - average max temps are ridiculous - 44C in Aug, 41C in Sep and 35C in Oct.

Kind of surprised that England missed outbut I think all of the options for 2022 would have been worthy hosts.

EDIT: @YSSMAN - You giuys had the olypmics in 1984 and 1996, and the world cup in 1994. Thats 3 huge events in 14 years. It will be a little while before the USA is a no-brainer. Especially given the number of football mad countries that have never host the WC (Spain, Netherlands to start with)

Also, I think Australia was pushing s*** uphill for votes because the European fans are too precious to watch something in an akward time zone. And don't get me started on the US TV networks getting the Beijing Olympic schedule changed to suit their TV schedule.

 

[Sureboss]

World Cups help the economy? *runs off to bribe FIFA officials so Ireland can host the 2026 World Cup*

You might want to look at several sporting events...

 

[Omnis]

Hopefully Qatar won't be a warzone by then.

 

[Touring Mars]

As an American, I'm really disappointed as well. My friends and I were all super excited about the fact that the US was being considered so heavily for the 2022 World Cup, but as always, we just end up being disappointed. I would have thought, given the popularity of football in High School and College level athletics, not to mention the impressive run for Team USA this year, and the increasing popularity of the MLS across the country... It would have been a no-brainer.


Guess we'll have to wait until the next set of Olympic bids come up. Damn you Rio!

Various theories abound as to why the Russian and Qatari bids won and others lost, ranging from the lurid (bribes, corruption etc.) to the ridiculous (the riot at the end of the Carling Cup quarter-final). I suspect that my Dad's theory is probably closest to the mark - FIFA want to expand and want to give the World Cup to countries without the existing infrastructure so they can encourage developing and emergent nations to become bigger players in world football.

To be fair to Russia, it is long overdue and they deserved it, even if I suspect that bribery and big money helped them win. Qatar will probably be a lavish affair, and it seems that they already have much of the groundwork done already... countries like the USA and England will struggle in this new environment. It all bodes well for a potential Scotland/Ireland joint bid though - we just have to hope that FIFA officials can be bribed with deep-fried food items and alcohol.

 

[Muzaffar]

Just heard about this from my mom earlier this morning, but honestly I'm not sure what to say... My mom said that FIFA is corrupted and stuff, and that these 2 countries shouldn't deserve to host the World Cup. She said England should have been picked since most of the facilities has already been built, and the last time England host the World Cup in 1966!

Then I jokingly said since these 2 countries got to host the World Cup, maybe Malaysia could host the World Cup as well!

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It's easy to throw around accusations of corruption. But look at Qatar's bid - the moment they said that football has united the Middle East (to some extent), nobody else had a chance. The nay-saying is mostly down to sore losers. There's a very good reason as to why England and Australia were the first proposals rejected in their respective year groups. I've noticed a strange correlation between public confidence and actual results; both England and Australia talked their bids up and dropped out early whilst I haven't heard a word from the likes of Qatar about their bid.

 

[Touring Mars]

It's easy to throw around accusations of corruption.

The nay-saying is mostly down to sore losers.

I disagree. There is clear evidence that some members of the FIFA committee responsible for the crucial votes are corrupt. FIFA themselves banned two of the 24 members from voting yesterday because they were caught trying to sell their votes. The BBC has evidence that atleast three others have taken bribes worth millions. It is definitely not simply a case of anyone being sore losers...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I disagree. There is clear evidence that some members of the FIFA committee responsible for the crucial votes are corrupt. FIFA themselves banned two of the 24 members from voting yesterday because they were caught trying to sell their votes. The BBC has evidence that atleast three others have taken bribes worth millions. It is definitely not simply a case of anyone being sore losers...

There's corruption and then there's assumed corruption. While there is evidence that FIFA members are indeed corrupt, England lost the bidding process by a wide margin. Even if those votes known to have been corrupt and suspected of being corrupt were legitimate, and everything else remained constant, they wouldn't have made much difference. England would have lost the World Cup regardless. So there's this assumption by fans that a lot of the votes were corrupted simply because England did not get the rights to host the event. It's like the public had already laid claim to it (I know a good portion of the Australian public had) and were simply waiting for FIFA to confirm their assumptions. When England didn't get it, accusations of corruption were thrown about without thought.

People try to ratioalise the loss as being a poor choice in hundreds of different ways. I've heard people claim that Russia and Qatar got the World Cup because that's where the oil money is, which is something I don't really understand. How can oil be a factor in deciding who gets the World Cup? We're not invading them, we're not establishing a Grand Prix there and we're not looking to trade with them, so aside from having more money to spend on stadiums, how is it a factor? You could have all the oil fields in the world and plans for the grandest stadiums ever designed by mankind, but if you're totally unorganised and your presentation was done with Microsoft PowerPoint, you're not going to host the World Cup. So how is it a factor?

 

[Touring Mars]

I agree with that - I think that Russia would have (and even should have) won the right to the 2018 in any circumstances, and so the discussion about corruption is largely moot. But, the fact that FIFA are almost certainly corrupt doesn't help - nor does it bode well for the sport in general. One would hope that an excellent bid would have a chance of swaying the vote, but it seems that most (some sources suggest as many as 19 of the 22 delegates) didn't even bother to request the technical reports, let alone digest them... makes you wonder what the point of the whole process is. Qatar, on the other hand, suggests that FIFA do atleast have a coherent policy of expansion into new regions - but again, I wonder why they bother to bring other countries into the running when they have little or no chance of winning.

 

[Pupik]

Qatar are building all these crazy stadiums, but what are they going to do with them after the World Cup is finished? See South Africa 2010...

I've heard before that the costs of infrastructure for a World Cup (basically one mega-huge-wowie-zowie stadium and a couple of smaller stadia, plus ancillary support like security and new hotel construction) is break-even after less than decade (or sooner), since you can re-use the facilities for more soccer matches. Of course, if soccer/football doesn't take off in that county, you're kind of screwed. I think the United States gets over its soccer fixation over with after about a month, and like the Olympiads, has plenty more on its plate for another 2-4 years, so I don't think hosting it would have really pushed the sport into prominence (which rates slightly above F1 racing, yet below NASCAR in in popularity).

Usually, you never get your money back on hosting an Olympics. You're usually stuck with a lot of facilities which serve no other purpose; it's really a greater-good scenario which makes the world think you're no longer a backwater province that eats children and still uses stones as units of currency...which hopefully promotes tourism.

 

[YSSMAN]

I would think though, that if they were to hold the World Cup in the US, they would have either used current standing soccer stadiums, or they would take a small amount of time to convert some of our (NFL) Football stadiums to host the events. It would have been extremely cost-effective to do so, and the possibility of some buku tourism dollars to come into a few select cities across the country. Miami, Houston or Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles and New York would all be able to host a large number of people very, very easily.

I think part of the problem is that the popularity of soccer/football in the US is too regional, which is probably why it it still pales in comparison to football or basketball, or everyone's favorite, baseball. I think it is more of a generational thing, I assume. My parents were far more aware of soccer/football when they were young and subsequently encouraged me to play when I was a kid. I follow it fairly closely, watching when it's on whenever possible. I will probably encourage my kids to play, and stick with it. It is a growing sport, and doing another World Cup in the US would certainly boost that movement a little further.

 

[Mark T]

Corruption, prostitution, lap dancing, cheap booze, mafia & assassinations. All sounds pretty good to me.

In all seriousness, of course it would have been great for the UK to get it. However, we've got the olympics for 2012 and the competition should be given to those countries that have never hosted it before.

 

[icelt]

+1 in disappointment to the US missing out. Internally I was certain that when we dropped out of the 2018 running it was because a wink/nod agreement had been made to give us the 2022 event. Was juuuuuust a little bit wrong on that prediction.


For those who haven't seen it the Qatary (sp?) stadium conceptual video is VERY impressive. Cues Holy Grail-ish "It's just a video" commentary though


Also read that after the WC they plan on donating some of the stadiums to other countries.

 

[RUI]

I've heard before that the costs of infrastructure for a World Cup (basically one mega-huge-wowie-zowie stadium and a couple of smaller stadia, plus ancillary support like security and new hotel construction) is break-even after less than decade (or sooner), since you can re-use the facilities for more soccer matches. Of course, if soccer/football doesn't take off in that county, you're kind of screwed. I think the United States gets over its soccer fixation over with after about a month, and like the Olympiads, has plenty more on its plate for another 2-4 years, so I don't think hosting it would have really pushed the sport into prominence (which rates slightly above F1 racing, yet below NASCAR in in popularity).

Usually, you never get your money back on hosting an Olympics. You're usually stuck with a lot of facilities which serve no other purpose; it's really a greater-good scenario which makes the world think you're no longer a backwater province that eats children and still uses stones as units of currency...which hopefully promotes tourism.

Even in countries where soccer is big, it's just not as simple as that. Take Portugal, for example. A bunch of new stadiums were built for the Euro '04 but people don't attend soccer matches that much so most of them are empty today having little or no use at all and making it very hard or impossible to break-even on the huge bill!