But, please....calm down!
It really isn't the end of the world. The Universe hasn't come crumbling down on us.
There are actually rather more important things that we need to get right, right now. We're told that a World Cup here would've brought hundreds of millions of pounds into the British economy. Well, that's as well as maybe but there was no guarantee that we'd got it in the first place so we haven't actually lost anything. Indeed, the FA paid £15m in bidding for the tournament and as this BBC article shows, English Councils paid £2.1m themselves as a part of the bid.
FIFA Bias?
I think there can be little doubt that Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President had little enthusiasm for an Enlgish World Cup. Certainly, his association with these Isles have always seemed to have been luke warm to me. The Panorama revelations of last week certainly didn't help and would've given Sepp more power to his elbow.
Panorama has in my opinion, every right to publish what they felt were the facts. Admittedly however, I think it would've been wiser for them to have held back just one week until after yesterday's result. They could still have told the world about their investigations but not imperilled England's World Cup chances whilst doing it.But in a way, that's by-the-by. England only got 2 votes out of the 22 in the end and were unceremoniously knocked out in the first round of voting. I doubt they'd have got much more even if it wasn't for the controversies that surrounded the vote.
Horizons New - Eastern Europe & the Middle East
FIFA are clearly keen on expanding their World Cup vision to new, untapped commercial lands. Their giving the 2010 World Cup to South Africa was controversial at the time but it turned out to be an excellent competition with security concerns allayed.
Not we're looking eastwards at Russia for 2018 and quite incredibly, Qatar in 2022.
Did Russia use their 'resources' to ensure that they won the vote? Quite probably. What about Qatar? It's as much of a gamble for FIFA as choosing South Africa had been or as it had been for the IOC when they chose China to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
The questions about human rights will arise from the Qatari bid and indeed the 'mafia' culture that is said to exist in Russia should've held more sway with those who voted right? Well, clearly not. The commercial call is a powerful one and breaking into new territories has been the way with FIFA for some time now since they broke into Asia with the Japan/South Korea World Cup in 2002.
Chin Up, Move On
This is the world we live in. FIFA are looking further afield and there's no point getting too het up about it. Until they decide to look again at the more 'traditional' footballing nations to host the game's centrepiece then there's no reason why England need care or bother.
Because at the end of the day, if England are good enough to win the World Cup, then like the likes of Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay and Spain they will be able to win a World Cup on foreign soil.
Or is that the problem...do English fans only think they can win the World Cup in their own country as they did in 1966? Maybe there's a deeper sense of insecurity there than they'd care to admit...
"Panorama has in my opinion, every right to publish what they felt were the facts. Admittedly however, I think it would've been wiser for them to have held back just one week until after yesterday's result. They could still have told the world about their investigations but not imperilled England's World Cup chances whilst doing it."
ReplyDeleteSorry - that would be conniving at the alleged corruption