The derelict braintrust that is FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar. Dripping in oil money, yet lacking in any football prowess whatsoever, nevertheless the Qataris topped the voting over second-place USA, Japan, etc.
The fallout that ensued, especially after England was dumped out of the 2018 voting in the first round WITH ONLY ONE VOTE, was monumental. Nobody could understand why Qatar had been given the vote...130 degrees in the summer, no place to put enough stadia for the event, out-of-touch religious codes, and a relationship with terrorist nations unchecked in the region.
But...FIFA DID vote for Qatar.
So a week ago when Septic Bladder (the scheming moron who runs the world's authority on football) sauntered over to the Asian Cup (no doubt on a private plane, staying in five-star accomodations), HRH saw fit to comment on Qatar.
He suggested that WC 2022 should be held in the winter! *crickets*
The proposal, no doubt, left all of UEFA's clubs in a quandary...meaning the WC would appear smack dab in the middle of their seasons.
Yes, the Asian Cup and African Nations Cup do run during the same time, but that assures only limited disruption in UEFA's leagues, and doesn't involve 2/3 of a club side.
Bladder's suggestion was to change the leagues' schedules around to fit the WC. *crickets*
Why is he suggesting the winter change? Because it's obvious that FIFA did not answer the most pertinent of questions when listening to the Qatari contingent present their bid...What, praytell, are you going to do about the oppressive heat?
In Qatar's bid, they PROMISED that they would air-condition all of the stadia (a technology which does not exist in 2010/11) so the players and fans would not be uncomfortable.
Really?
So I suppose they were also proposing to follow around the fans attending with a personal air-conditioning device to keep them cool when they WEREN'T at the stadia...
The schedules are already a quagmire, what with extra matches (domestic cups, Champions League, Int'l friendlies and qualifiers) to contend with. Now the Supreme Ruler of All Things Footy wants them to just "change the season around."
Well, what he isn't considering is that the seasons in footy run during certain months to avoid the heat of the summer, which is exactly what FIFA should have done when NOT awarding the 2022 WC to Qatar.
As if Bladder's consistent idiocy isn't hard enough to swallow, now we have another supposed know-it-all chiming in on the WC issue.
The Court Jester of UEFA, Michel Platini, let loose with a whopper today when he also suggested that the World Cup 2022 could be held in all of the Gulf States and that a change in schedules would not be out of the question. How convenient for him. Of course he's not worried about the scheduling because he isn't the one in charge of trying to meld the schedules of the EPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Turkish League, Portuguese League, et al. His words, though, have only underscored the malfeasance and underhandedness involved in awarding the world's largest sporting event. He and his twin goon at FIFA merely brush aside real questions about infrastructure and reason with an indignant edict of "if you're not towing the line then you are not a real fan of footy, a closet xenophobe, and most assuredly a whining fool who knows nothing about the business of sports."
Here is a snippet of his words:
"I hope it will be a World Cup of the Gulf. It could be the World Cup of Qatar but played in the Gulf. I think we need political people (for this to happen), but I think so.''
Asked why such drastic changes could be considered when they were never mentioned during the bidding campaign, Platini added: "Who will remember the words in 12 years? In 12 years everybody will be happy to have a very well-organised World Cup and not remember what's happened before.
"When I organised the World Cup in France we did (things) differently from what we proposed in the bid.''
Platini did not speak about playing the 2022 World Cup in January but raised the prospect of a major change to the football calendar.
He added: "When I came in 1998 as advisor to Sepp Blatter I worked on the international calendar and my proposal to Blatter was to play from February to December. FIFA was close to accepting that, then Italy and Spain said no because they wanted to play in winter. Finish.
"It is necessary to think what could be the future. I don't say to play in winter or not to play in winter but to think about what could be the calendar in the future.''
When Michel PlasticNobHead suggests that nobody will remember what was discussed now when 2022 rolls around, what he REALLY means is, when the 2022 WC becomes a monumental disaster, "I won't be in office so I won't have to deal with the ramifications."
I was under the impression that when a bid is made (at great expense of a bidding nation) that said bid is the final option of that country. That the infrastructure, financing, and logistics have been thought out to the nth degree, raked over with a fine-toothed comb by those schooled in organizing these types of events, and then presented to the bid committee as a "take it or leave it."
Boy was I wrong.
Now that we're just one month out of the vote, two changes have already been proposed for Qatar:
1) Hold it in winter because the Qataris did not really think through the heat issue...and...
2) Have the entire footy world rearrange their schedules so a football non-entity can host what will go down as the worst WC in history.
Why haven't the organizing committees of the USA, Australia, and Japan cried foul? To be fair, FIFA should hold the vote again, and allow those committees to rebid, if the criteria have changed.
The comments from fora around the world have echoed my sentiments, aghast at what FIFA have been allowed to do....change the rules AFTER the vote has been taken. And to those voices, I will add my own...until the financial backers of the WC... Nike, Budweiser, Adidas, VISA, et al combine to change the business dealings of Septic Bladder and his cronies, he will continue to run amok and take football down with him.
"Oye, oye, I am the Supreme Ruler of Idiocy!"
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