No We Can't!
As Wayne Campbell said on more than one occasion, "Denied."
I didn't think I was going to feel so depressed about losing the 2018 World Cup bid, must be the cold weather or something. Rumours, conspiracies, counter-conspiracies and counter rumour will be flying about over the next week. Who was to blame for England losing out as early as the first round and apparently only getting the support of Turkey, that in itself probably a recognition of David Cameron welcoming them into the EU in future.
Was it the Sunday Times? The BBC? Certainly there is a feeling that both organisations over stepped the mark with their investigations but the BBC programme was a rehash, not news, and it's difficult to see how that could have affected the vote. How did everybody involved know the result half an hour before Sepp Blatter opened the envelope? If it was a closed ballot and the public are not (unlike with the IOC voting) to know the result why were people being made aware of the result so early in the proceedings?
Apparently, and this is unconfirmed here say, it was even 'out there' in Spain that Russia had won before any formal declaration and of course the fact that Putin didn't travel to throw his weight behind Russia's bid just adds fuel to the conspiratorial fire. We may as throw in the grassy knoll, the tunnel in Paris and Jack the Ripper. If Russia's bid was so good why did FIFA 'leak' a document to Sky News earlier this week that gave everybody so much hope, England first in four out of five categories.
Russia will have to build nine new Stadia, new airports, new roads, new hotels and improve its visa allocation system and that's without clamping down on the racism and corruption that is endemic in that country. A country where the average attendance is less than 15,000 for the top flight of domestic football still beats Qatar, I mean how did that happen?
So it's Poland/Ukraine in 2012, Brazil in 2014, France in 2016, Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. Any chance England might get a crack at the European Championships in 2020?
3 comments:
I mean how did that happen?
...lots of zeros on the left hand side of the decimal point; being an accountant it should be clear :-)
It's funny isn't it, normally I wouldn't give a shit but there has definitely been a "build-up" about this and so the let down comes as more of a surprise.
Presumably, with all their oil and gas money, the cost of stadia won't trouble the Russians too much but I can't say I've got too much confidence in other aspects of their competence.
I agree Span, it was the build-up, the fact we were told on Monday that England's bid was the best etc..
Shy I think Shaka Hislop put it perfectly last night when he said that the problems will go away for five or six weeks in the summer of 2018.
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