December 2, 2010

Money Talks

With the results in, it looks like my prognostication sadly didn't come true. Lets take a look at the voting rounds and see how it went down.
2018 Tournament
First Round
England, 2 votes,
Belgium-Netherlands, 4
Spain-Portugal, 7
Russia, 9
(England eliminated)
Probably the biggest shock in this round is England's elimination, especially after so many FIFA officials called an England World cup a 'dream'

Second Round
Belgium-Netherlands, 2
Spain-Portugal, 7
Russia, 13
(Russia wins with an absolute majority)

2022 Tournament
Australia, 1
Japan, 3
United States, 3
South Korea, 4
Qatar, 11
(Australia eliminated)

Second Round
Japan, 2
South Korea, 5
United States, 5
Qatar 10
(Japan eliminated)

Third Round
South Korea, 5
United States, 6
Qatar, 11
(South Korea eliminated)

Fourth Round
United States, 8
Qatar, 14
(Qatar wins with an absolute majority)

Here's a few thoughts of mine. Personally, I think it's a farce that South Korea and Japan both got as many votes as they did, considering that they hosted the World Cup together in the past decade, which is against FIFA's new non-rotational policy (and lets not mince words, they changed that rule to bring the competition in Europe more often).

What factors might we consider in the selection:
1. TV: the FIFA World Cup is one of the most watched events in the world. FIFA, being a euro-centric organization, would certainly like to be able to se the games at a reasonable hour of the day, and by hosting both World Cups just East of Europe major, outside of Russia and the Middle East, viewers in Europe will have the least amount of adjustments to their viewing schedule. Get ready for games between 4am-11am throughout the entire tournament America.

2. Politics: If we look at the voting, it was obvious after round 1 that nobody in FIFA, aside from American Chuck Blazer, wast going to vote USA, despite already having every stadium built and 12 years to upgrade existing infrastructure (the largest network in the damn WORLD) and build up our rail capacity, an achievable goal in that amount of time. Forget the 110 degree heat beating down on players for 90 minutes, forget a potential water crisis, forget that most of the stadiums have yet to be built, just remember who paid for those lovely gift bags and all inclusive vacation resort deals. I hope that NOBODY trusts FIFA, because after the way the FIFA officials handled the USA in the last two world cups, I haven't for some time.

3. MONEY: The former English Vice president of FIFA had to recently step down after making allegations of corruption in FIFA. How much corruption? Ask Sepp Blatter and you'll get a chuckle that says "you'll never prove anything". I'm sick to death of these upper eschelon ass hats who never kicked a ball in competition raking in money hand over fist and acting like they're as clean as freshly fallen snow. Curse you FIFA, you've raped the world's favorite games with your illogical rules and regulations and acted like the world asked you to do it.

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