In the category of “headlines so obvious that you can’t believe you haven’t seen them sooner” here is a BBC article titled
Qatar’s Bin Hammam accused of buying 2022 World Cup
While I am far from a football expert I wrote about it here in particular how the greens that protest everything under the sun didn’t seem to mind NOT using some of the dozens of world class stadiums already built for football (soccer) around the world and let Russia and Qatar win the next 2 world cups, which required the construction of many more stadiums, which strikes me as completely the opposite of being “green”, but I can’t follow their logic anyways.
Back to the Qatar bid which seemingly MUST have been based on bribery because no logical set of criteria would award this tournament to a bidder that
1) had a non-existent history of success and barely even participated in the sport on the global stage
2) had no facilities to utilize
3) would likely have to play games under the blazing sun in virtually a furnace
4) would have to truck all fans in from around the world to attend the games
But of course we know why they won as is stated in the article above.
Suspended Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has made public an e-mail that claims Mohamed Bin Hammam “bought” the 2022 World Cup finals for Qatar.
I do like Australia’s response to the final outing of this obvious outcome.
Meanwhile, independent Australian senator Nick Xenophon has demanded that Fifa refunds the Aus$45.6m ( £29.6m) they spent on their unsuccessful bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Xenophon said: “It appears corrupt and highly questionable behaviour goes to the core of Fifa. “Australia spent almost $46m on a bid we were never in the running for.”Now we hear that bribes may have been made to fix the result for who will head up Fifa.”
Finally let’s just drop the pretense of these international organizations being for anything other than the interests of those that run them. That goes for the Olympics too. Want to reward Russia for their fine behavior in the international stage, including the invasion of Georgia and general meddling in all the states on their borders? Give them the winter Olympics, in a facility that isn’t even built (no bribery there, either).
What does all of that have to do with football?
I believe Americans play football and the Euros play feetball.
I wonder if there will be special accommodations for Jews?
m simon, yes of course –in the scoring. The Jews only get points when the other team scores, and when the Jews score, the other team wins automatically.
Australia is out?
Australia is OUT?!?
As an American, I believe its our imperative to help the world develop and grow. Thus, we should move the UN to Qatar. I’ll even help them pack.
Yes, the Olympics Committee is the 2nd-worst (after the UN) when it comes to self-serving corruption. But not far behind is the international auto racing sanctioning body, FIA, controlled by the primary operators of the Formula 1 racing series who use it to enrich themselves. The F-1 series is so corrupt that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had to send them packing after spending literally millions of dollars preparing the track for a long-term venue for road racing.
It will be interesting to see how these outfits survive the world-wide economic collapse that is pending.
Bribery in the world of professional sports? Oh noes! Color me shocked.
Hey Europe, explain to me please why soccer is played by kicking a ball with the feet, so you call it football; yet tennis is played by hitting a ball with a racquet but you do not call it racquetball. Why is that?
Greens have not protested because they are first People of the Left. They want to feel good about the appearance of even-handedness in assigning prestige sporting events to various countries. The sensibleness of the action is immaterial – their feelings about it are the key.
“Finally let’s just drop the pretense of these international organizations being for anything other than the interests of those that run them.”
Pournelle’s Iron Law in action.
The Georgia invasion was hilarious. Most seem to have missed the point. They drove directly to and did donuts on the Baku Pipeline.
That was the point … eh’.
Good post, Carl!