What happens if they don’t want to? It isn’t cheap to host.
FIFA should just buy Greece and hold it there every 4 years. A win-win for everyone.
Then it goes to the team in second place, and so on.
As I’ve said, a breakaway by the major footballing nations (and England) would destroy the credibility of a World Cup played without them.
I’m all for the spread of cricket around the world, but to give an equal say to a country with eight cricket clubs as a huge country in which cricket is the largest sport is IMHO ridiculous.
That reminds of that prank the rest of Europe played on Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest… Voting for them to win four times in a row so they had to pay to host it the next year.
They never cottoned on…
And which lead to one of the great sitcom episodes and most definitely the greatest song never to win Eurovision.
This isn’t a whole lot different from just having countries bid on it. And to be honest, having the World Cup in different countries, as much as a travesty as 2022 is going to be, can be really cool, too. Holding the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the 2002 Cup in Japan and South Korea, or indeed the 1994 World Cup in the USA, were all to the benefit of the sport.
This is a pretty healthy perspective right here.
I will add that the possibilities of culture clashes between female fans from more, ah, liberal countries and the much more conservative home folks fills me with giddiness.
“Brazilian women, Qatar. Qatar, Brazilian women. The lady is wearing what’s known as a ‘tank top’ and, yes, it is indeed quite revealing of her physical assets.”
Because Dubai would out-spend Sri Lanka in it’s bid.
Not quite. Ireland won 4 times out of 5. Norway interrupted the streak in 1995, although the band that won was a Norwegian-Irish duo, Secret Garden.
“Truth is the first casualty of the Eurovision Song Contest” - Terry Wogan (or maybe Ken Bruce), circa 19 something or other…