Scott 5Has Australia's chances of hosting the FIFA World Cup gone down the drain????
January 28th 2010 23:40
The FIFA World Cup is an event that is held once every 4 years and as such, the lucky country or contries (See 2002 Japan/Korea) have the eye of the world on them. They say it's even more popular than the Olympics and as such all countries would love to host it. Not only do they have the eyes of the world on them, but the economic benefits are endless for the host contry. Naturally every country would love to have it but only one country can get it and Australia have expressed an interest in hosting either 2018 or 2022.
The Australian bid in my view so far has lived up to expectation. With $45 million behind them, the marvellous team at the FFA led by Westfield boss Frank Lowy has put together a very impressive public campaign. They've used FIFA meets to lobby the 24 members of the Executive Committee and the public awareness campaign through the Come Play Website along with having all A-League teams wearing a replica shirt advertising the Come Play inititive.
However, over the past couple of days I have been concerned heavily by developments and am genuinely worried all of the sudden about Australia's bid. One has been potentially self-inflicted while a couple of my fears are due to the nature of FIFA and its politics.
As highlighted on The World Game in Jesse Fink's blog, Bonita Mersiades had left the FFA and no-one was entirely sure why. Fink highlights that she's a "football person" and that her loss could potentially damage our bid. I actually tend to agree because besides Lowy (owner of St Goerge/Sydney City in the old NSL) and Jack Reilly (Goalkeeper at the 1974 World Cup for Australia) she was a football person and her loss definately means there's not enough "football people" involved in the bid.
If her loss wasn't bad enough, then the news that came out of the Herald Sun really had me boiling. According to Sepp Blatter (FIFA President), only European nations need apply for 2018. Alledgedly there has been some sort of deal done to ensure this is the case. My guess being that in return for this, UEFA nations will throw themselves behind Sepp Blatter when he's up for re-election. It's politics and frankly it's dodgy .
My alarm then increased with realisation that the countries bidding for 2022 include Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Indonesia, Mexico, USA and Australia. Looking through the countries, my alarm really increased. Japan and Korea would be ineligible as they hosted it in 2002 (although there's precedent for a nation to host the World Cup twice in a short time, Mexico 1970 and 1986). Qatar is backed by oil money and the head of the AFC, Mohammad Bin Hammam is a Qatari which gave me more concern. Indonesia doesn't pose too much of a threat but they do have 4 stadiums that meet FIFA requirements but then I looked at USA and Mexcio and the alarm tripled.
USA and Mexico are located in the CONCACAF region and the head there is Jack Warner. Warner is a very strong politician and he isn't exactly renowned for being clean either. He takes as much money out of football as he possibly can and to be quite frank and honest, his ability to manovure decisions his way, scares me. He's also on the FIFA Executive Committee and really, I am now panic-stricken.
I have little doubt that this won't be a clean campaign at all and considering past incidents, I'm betting with near certainty that votes will be subject to bribery. Essentially, what we're looking at is a campaign where the winning countries won't necessarily be decided by the quality of the bid but how much money you pay for votes. It's a system which stinks. It's a system that's open to corruption and to be quite honest and frank it's not a game Australia is particularly good at considering our "Fair Play" mentality.
I challenge the FFA to lift their game and for FIFA to have some faith restored in it by granting us either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. We are the "final frontier" for football and comercially, it makes sense.
Let's see it happen now.
The Australian bid in my view so far has lived up to expectation. With $45 million behind them, the marvellous team at the FFA led by Westfield boss Frank Lowy has put together a very impressive public campaign. They've used FIFA meets to lobby the 24 members of the Executive Committee and the public awareness campaign through the Come Play Website along with having all A-League teams wearing a replica shirt advertising the Come Play inititive.
However, over the past couple of days I have been concerned heavily by developments and am genuinely worried all of the sudden about Australia's bid. One has been potentially self-inflicted while a couple of my fears are due to the nature of FIFA and its politics.
As highlighted on The World Game in Jesse Fink's blog, Bonita Mersiades had left the FFA and no-one was entirely sure why. Fink highlights that she's a "football person" and that her loss could potentially damage our bid. I actually tend to agree because besides Lowy (owner of St Goerge/Sydney City in the old NSL) and Jack Reilly (Goalkeeper at the 1974 World Cup for Australia) she was a football person and her loss definately means there's not enough "football people" involved in the bid.
If her loss wasn't bad enough, then the news that came out of the Herald Sun really had me boiling. According to Sepp Blatter (FIFA President), only European nations need apply for 2018. Alledgedly there has been some sort of deal done to ensure this is the case. My guess being that in return for this, UEFA nations will throw themselves behind Sepp Blatter when he's up for re-election. It's politics and frankly it's dodgy .
My alarm then increased with realisation that the countries bidding for 2022 include Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Indonesia, Mexico, USA and Australia. Looking through the countries, my alarm really increased. Japan and Korea would be ineligible as they hosted it in 2002 (although there's precedent for a nation to host the World Cup twice in a short time, Mexico 1970 and 1986). Qatar is backed by oil money and the head of the AFC, Mohammad Bin Hammam is a Qatari which gave me more concern. Indonesia doesn't pose too much of a threat but they do have 4 stadiums that meet FIFA requirements but then I looked at USA and Mexcio and the alarm tripled.
USA and Mexico are located in the CONCACAF region and the head there is Jack Warner. Warner is a very strong politician and he isn't exactly renowned for being clean either. He takes as much money out of football as he possibly can and to be quite frank and honest, his ability to manovure decisions his way, scares me. He's also on the FIFA Executive Committee and really, I am now panic-stricken.
I have little doubt that this won't be a clean campaign at all and considering past incidents, I'm betting with near certainty that votes will be subject to bribery. Essentially, what we're looking at is a campaign where the winning countries won't necessarily be decided by the quality of the bid but how much money you pay for votes. It's a system which stinks. It's a system that's open to corruption and to be quite honest and frank it's not a game Australia is particularly good at considering our "Fair Play" mentality.
I challenge the FFA to lift their game and for FIFA to have some faith restored in it by granting us either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. We are the "final frontier" for football and comercially, it makes sense.
Let's see it happen now.
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