More Blowback for Winter World Cup

FIFA Exec and Premier League Chief Hit Out at 2022 Qatar Winter World Cup

COMMENTARY | Little by little, the foundation of the 2022 QatarWorld Cup is crumbling down. It was but a little over a week ago that FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted what we all knew was true several years back, that a World Cup cannot take place in Qatarduring the hot summer months. Now, multiple noteworthy individuals are coming forward to voice their displeasure about an event that is becoming more and more a debacle nine years before it is even set to begin. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.

Kicking Back Comments: Well, I'm not at all surprised by these reactions. In fact, I am a little surprised regarding how muted some are.

I think that will change however if FIFA actually goes ahead and moves the 2022 Cup to November. Not sure how that is done procedurally (EX-Comm vote, Presidential FIAT?) but Sepp's recent comments may have been a trial balloon to gauge reaction.

As we can see, it is not going well ... and I don't expect will if FIFA actually moves the dates.

Is Qatar Losing the World Cup in 2022?

Sounds crazy huh?

Well at least one person out there thinks this can happen based on the FIFA presidential fight. One may think that the US would be a pretty viable alternative to Qatar, yes?

No, says this article stating ... and you'll love this:

As the second-placed bid behind Qatar, the United States was the logical option, but talks with the USSF “were not able to progress beyond a preliminary level.” It is understood that political considerations were key: given the current tension between the US and the Arab world, the country could ill afford to be seen to be taking a World Cup from a Middle Eastern nation.

If true, I don't know which part make me angrier, the fact that we didn't even consider trying to grab success from the jaws of epic defeat, or the folks in Chicago are making geopolitical decisions passing judgment on the big bad US (my sarcastic words) "taking" something else from "a Middle Eastern nation." Come on folks, at times US Soccer seems to have difficulty managing itself, ceding much of its perceived authority to the individual state associations, and (again if the story is true) is tying to play state department and casting judgment about what is going on over in the Middle East and translating it into not trying for the World Cup ... please. Why did we even try in the first place then knowing we were bidding against Qatar?

Australia seems to have no such hangups and with their support of Blatter, may indeed see that tournament in 2022.

We will see how much the story is fact or fiction in the days ahead, but it sounds like at FIFA it is politics as usual, and US Soccer is all to happy to sit on the sidelines.

I guess there is always 2026 ... what's 15 years, right?
For those who are not paying attention at US Soccer ... it is a lifetime.

See the full story, Australia to get 2022 World Cup, FIFA descends into chaos courtesy of The Roar.

Will it still be Qatar in 2022?

With unrest washing over the Middle East, these are uncertain times for us all. Apparently Qatar is no exception, as this story indicates: Facebook page calls for removal of Qatar's Emir.

Funny enough, part of the FIFA technical report recounted political support for THE game in the US as a reason for not bringing it over here.

FIFA's observation seems a bit hollow in the face of what is happening in that part of the world currently.

I wonder if Sepp is having second thoughts about 2022 now?

Cool ... But a reality?

As I have stated here before, I am part geek. In fact I may actually be mostly geek. To that end I have been poking around waiting for the designs for the Qatar stadia and how they are going to be "carbon neutral", "eco friendly", and "able to be dismantled and transported for use in poorer countries."

Well, I just ran across one such article here from Inhabitat. An example is shown below.

Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com

It is pretty cool stuff, and worth a look, if for no other reason, to see what is cooking with some of the architectural ideas in the future of stadium design.

Bribe ... what bribe? That's a "private agreement".

Qatar's World Cup Spending Spree

Qatar's winning bid to hold the 2022 World Cup was marked by a spending spree that included investments in the home countries of several executives who were responsible for choosing the host nation, according to internal documents from the emirate's bidding committee.

The spending sheds light on how FIFA regulations—outlined in the two-page rules of conduct for World Cup host-nation bidding—left the door open for hopefuls to open wallets to exert indirect influence on international soccer's small circle of decision-makers.

Qatar also paid soccer-world luminaries—hailing from France, Spain, Argentina and elsewhere—who publicly endorsed its bid, according to Qatar bid committee documents and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Some were paid more than a million dollars in connection with the endorsements, said a person familiar with the situation. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of the WSJ.

Homosexuals need not attend 2022 World Cup - Blatter

I don't know what else to say except, "wow."

After all how does one rationalize what FIFA President, Sepp Blatter said (even jokingly) at a Monday (13-DEC) press conference in South Africa, of prospective gay fans: "I would say they should refrain from any sexual activities."

This because homosexual acts are illegal in Qatar.

Maybe Sepp is just trying to be the emissary of the 2022 World Cup and let everyone know what to expect?

Maybe Sepp was just hosing down the pitch with testosterone to keep up with South African President Jacob Zuma, who has said at the same press conference that, "When I was growing up, a (insert "homosexual" slur here) would not have stood in front of me. I would have knocked him out."

Nice.

The president of FIFA and the president of South Africa ... what a fitting couple.

As you can imagine there is a backlash to these comments from a variety of sources, and an interesting article is here from the WSJ about the whole situation.

This will however be an interesting mix in 2022 ... culture for cash. We will see just how far people in Qatar are willing to trade their way of life for sponsorship dollars ... at least for a month (in January??).

Inside Story - What was Fifa thinking?

Courtesy of AlJazeera (English) as seen on You Tube.

Kicking Back comments:
Admittedly while I generally do not use this media outlet, this particular program was very interesting.

More Anti-US Sentiment ... from Qatar

From the Gulf Times seen here:

“I am not interested in football at all, and believe that it is getting more world attention than it really deserves. But when the voting process put Qatar against the US, I hoped that Qatar would win,” Sheikh Qaradawi said in his Friday sermon at the Omar bin al-Khattab mosque at Khalifa South town. The US president had said that FIFA had taken a “wrong decision”. It was a very bad comment by Obama. This means that he was intervening in a decision that should be made through voting. It seems that America wants to have the monopoly on everything in the world from politics to sports,” Qaradawi said.