Except for the fact he's on the FIFA voting committee...

By all accounts only 3 of the 22 requested the technical bid documents.

Both decisions for 2018 and 2022 had fuck all to do with the merits of the bids, it was pure politics....or corruption depending on how you view it.

It really is unbelievable. If they set criteria to be met for a bid to be successful and you meet that criteria the best then you should win, end of. If the decision is to be made is on other criteria, ie spreading the world cup to countries to help them to develop, then fucking say so and save everybody else the time and money in making a bid they clearly were never going to win.

However I think this is bollocks, it is clearly whover lines the FIFA delegates' pockets most that is the criteria. Bent bastards.

Looks like this could easily see the FA go bust too............so silver linings and all that.

Our league is probably the only league in tnhe world that is strong enought commercially for the FA to quit FIFA. That would shit them up.

Dear mr Blatter,

I have recently been appointed leader the joint bid committee for the 2026 world cup in Andorra and San Marino.
We don't actually have any teams but we do have 3 pitches seating a total of 1276 people. We don't have any airports or train stations and not really many kids to leave a legacy to.
What we do have, however, is a lot of tax breaks and rich people who are quite prepared to see that anyone who votes for our bid will be ok for a few ski holidays and cheap drink, if you know what I mean.
Our bid book will be delivered in a plain brown envelope and can be in a variety of currencies.
Love
the Bishop of Seu D'urgel

it's 106 degrees in doha in the day time in summer, 86 in the shade

the stadiums that are being built will hold more people than actually live in the fucking country

there's no beer, being found drunk leads to deportation or jail, no questions

the only press that is more restricted than there can be found in africa or russia

losing to russia doesn't piss me off that much, but qatar beating australia? that's a fucking sick joke

If you getting caught bumming you get the lash.

it's 106 degrees in doha in the day time in summer, 86 in the shade

the stadiums that are being built will hold more people than actually live in the fucking country

there's no beer, being found drunk leads to deportation or jail, no questions

the only press that is more restricted than there can be found in africa or russia

losing to russia doesn't piss me off that much, but qatar beating australia? that's a fucking sick joke

Australia were going to withdraw their bid, only for Blatter to convince them that they had a chance, and to get them to pump more money into in/FIFA.

FIFA are rotten to the core.

it's 106 degrees in doha in the day time in summer, 86 in the shade

the stadiums that are being built will hold more people than actually live in the fucking country

there's no beer, being found drunk leads to deportation or jail, no questions

the only press that is more restricted than there can be found in africa or russia

losing to russia doesn't piss me off that much, but qatar beating australia? that's a fucking sick joke

which makes the environmentalist inside me die a little bit.

Sold.

Qatar. A country with a permanent population smaller than the city of Bristol and a geographical area smaller than the Falkland Islands. The rest of the population is made up of modern day slaves and you can be sure they'll be shipping in a lot more from Dubai to build those fancy new stadiums. I know the stadiums are very pretty but they're also a colossal waste of money because they'll all be empty/knocked down after the World Cup. The heat is also something like 45/50 C in July there so they're literally planning to air condition air, which makes the environmentalist inside me die a little bit.

I'm sure the fans will love the fact that they can't buy alcohol anywhere and they aren't allowed to kiss their partners (who will have to be modestly dressed with covered shoulders, of course) or, if they're gay, have the possibility of being thrown into prison for 5 years. Along with the fact that it'll be searingly hot, along with the fact that the native population is tiny, along with the fact that it is miles from anywhere, along with the fact that by FIFA's own admission the internal travel network and infrastructure is terrible will all combine to make people not bother going. The best World Cups are those held in countries where football has a huge national following i.e. Europe and South America. It makes no sense from any of FIFA's bullshit 'developing football' schemes either seeing as the Qatari league is literally made up of 37 year old league 1 journeymen.

I'm a bit miffed England didn't get it but if they'd have at least chosen countries with decent bids like Spain/Portugal and Australia or Netherlands/Belgium and even the bloody USA I'd have been able to complain less but they have literally chosen the two countries that their own investigation teams marked down as the highest risk candidates in a number of categories.

The whole process of bidding seems like an unnecessary charade of a popularity contest when everyone who wanted it might as well have just written down their wish to host the thing with their chosen stadiums on a piece of a4 paper, signed it with hugs and kisses and mailed it off to the fuckers and let them have done the work instead of dragging confused looking celebrities and politicians to suck Blatter's liver spotted old knob for a few days when it was all decided by the size of the back room bungs. No fucking wonder Putin didn't turn up, he knew they had it in the bag.

Also of note is that the Qatari bid literally had to have a caveat explaining that yes, they would in fact allow Israel to compete in the competition and they would recognise Israeli passports to allow their fans to go, not that they would want to.