Or, when will international soccer competition pull the plug on FIFA?
Yesterday, a FIFA task force caved in to the fact that Qatar simply cannot carry on a soccer tournament in the summer. From CNN:
Al-Khalifa’s best solution is to move the World Cup in Qatar to November and December, wreaking havoc on the European soccer season. Nobody is happy with this solution except for FIFA suckups.
The real best solution is to ignore the FIFA corruption that scheduled the World Cup for Qatar in the first place, and to dump FIFA, and to dump Qatar. If the European and South American confederations form a new federation, that is all it would take.
Well, it’s FIFA’s fault for picking Qatar in the first place. I’m all for the WORLD Cup being played on different continents but Qatar?!? I don’t know about you but I’m 99.99999% certain that the votes that gave Qatar the World Cup were paid for. I’m losing interest more and more in soccer and decisions like the one to award a World Cup to a country like Qatar are just one more reason why.
You must have missed the first part of the last sentence of my OP: “The real best solution is to ignore the FIFA corruption that scheduled the World Cup for Qatar in the first place,”
I’m really not much of a soccer fan in general, but I very much enjoy watching the World Cup. I get to watch literally world-class soccer, and I get to root for Italy.
FIFA corruption is trying to ruin the World Cup, and FIFA should become history.
Playing in November/December would also not work out well for Fox Sports in the USA who will be providing the TV coverage. That’s right in the peak of the NFL season as well as the end of college football.
The FA has always opposed it. The German FA expressed opposition to it a couple of months ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if the two associations hadn’t had discussions about a breakaway.
I think FIFA has made it pretty clear that they will neither pull the plug, nor offer any sort of compensation or concessions to inconvenienced organizations, apart from slightly reducing the length of the tournament. Something major would have to happen to change this.
Is it? I mean, suppose the relevant officials in those countries were on board for a revolution. Are there not legal, contractual, financial commitments with and through FIFA that would effectively preclude this? Is the disruption of rescheduling events seven years out really so severe that the fight would be worth undertaking?
Yep. Basically it’s a done deal. I’m sure there will be some pain in rescheduling European leagues (creating lengthy winter breaks), but I figure it’ll end up ok in the end.
The main issue, IMO, isn’t the shifting to a winter WC, its what is going on in creating the stadiums.
South Africa wasn’t ready in time, so the World Cup is going to be moved elsewhere. The World Cup was held in South Africa.
Brazil is running out of money, are behind on stadium construction, and there is unrest in the streets, the 2014 World Cup needs to be moved elsewhere. It was held in Brazil.
How soon before we hear whispers the Russians are behind on their world cup preparations, the stadiums aren’t ready for completion, and because of Chechnya terror groups, the World Cup should be moved elsewhere.
Should just pull international competition in general out of the ME. Having the world cup in Qatar is a bit too close to the ISIS cluster fuck. There will be a mass casualty incident and kidnappings galore once the place fills with international big wigs. Tag this post. You read it here first people.
We heard what? That they were completely incapable of hosting the World Cup in June and July due to weather? That the promise of air-conditioned stadiums was never meant to be kept? That changing the schedule wreaks havoc with long-established league schedules? That Qatar is using what is effectively slave labor to build the stadiums? That concerns exist about the safety and security of the players and tourists due not only to terrorism, but to being in a nation that outlaws drinking and homosexuality? That it was only by massive corruption on an unprecedented scale that such a completely unsuitable host was selected in the first place.
If you think the complaints are simply that Qatar will not be ready in time, you haven’t been paying attention.
Exactly, the concerns about South Africa and Brazil were to do with building schedules falling behind, some slight worry over visitor safety and what legacy it leaves behind.
Nothing at all like the Qatar situation, I don’t recall anyone think it was an inherently bad idea to take the World cup back to South America or a first foray into Africa. I don’t even think that going to Russia is stupid idea even though they bribed their way to it just as much (if not more) than the Qataris.
The other thing that stinks is that…if the date of the World Cup is actually moveable then there must be loads of countries around the world thinking “hang on, we’ve never bid because our climate won’t allow a summer tournament and now you say that such timings are optional?”
FIFA are a bunch of corrupt arseholes. How I would love the UEFA teams to say no, fuck you. we’ll run an extra European championship instead. Oh, and we’ll invite Brazil and Argentina as well…but the rest of you have fun…send us a postcard of sand dunes and a dead slave worker in a funny hat.
In addition to going head to head with the NFL, American fans are much less likely to gather in the nation’s city parks to watch the Yanks in late November. Now those may have been the more casual footy fans anyway, the ones who mostly get all hyped up only for the big periodic global events, but it still does soccer in this country no favors.
And fuck those Russian assholes, too. Just on general principles.
Anyways, unless UEFA pulls out (and that’s really not going to happen), the World Cup will not be removed from Qatar for a simple reason - the AFC has a ton of votes and anyone who wants to be the head of FIFA will need those votes to win (unless they can line up UEFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, and CAF - which, yeah right).
I go back to my point about the US and others boycotting a World Cup in Qatar. There are calls for it from some media members. Is it realistic? What would it take for the US or England to withdraw? The slave labor and over a thousand worker deaths (so far) aren’t enough?
It likely isn’t all that realistic. The US for one, is allies with Qatar. It’s headquarters for the Iraq War (the 2000s one) was in Doha. I doubt that USSF is going to be calling for a boycott with that in mind.