England's World Cup 2018 bid

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Snigger. That explains the torrent of sour grapes from pundits all over Auntie.

Let's be honest here, both their and my country's FAs were perfectly happy to go into the bidding process, which knew d@@ned well was corrupt long before they entered it, and perfectly happy to play that game. Had they (or we) been elected, would there have been such comp ...[text shortened]... y had a problem with corruption, they would not have been there in the first place.

Richard

Regardless, the fact that Qatar is given an opportunity in spite of the many factors against a succesful cup stinks to high heaven! At least Russia has a modicum of infrastructure and mild summers. How is Qatar going to deal with scantilly clad women in their 115F heat? I wonder! Or do they simply believe no women will show up?

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Snigger. That explains the torrent of sour grapes from pundits all over Auntie.

Let's be honest here, both their and my country's FAs were perfectly happy to go into the bidding process, which knew d@@ned well was corrupt long before they entered it, and perfectly happy to play that game. Had they (or we) been elected, would there have been such comp ...[text shortened]... y had a problem with corruption, they would not have been there in the first place.

Richard

I think its rather unfair and rather cynical, i really do believe that they have a sense of fair play, its one of their most admirable qualities, but like you say, it was naive to think that they would win it on merit alone.

Originally posted by scacchipazzo
Regardless, the fact that Qatar is given an opportunity in spite of the many factors against a succesful cup stinks to high heaven! At least Russia has a modicum of infrastructure and mild summers. How is Qatar going to deal with scantilly clad women in their 115F heat? I wonder! Or do they simply believe no women will show up?

I know, what kind of world cup is it when them cups are not allowed to overflow 😉

quick quiz. englands 2018 world cup bid fill in the missing words. they think its all over -- -- --- .

Originally posted by scacchipazzo
Regardless, the fact that Qatar is given an opportunity in spite of the many factors against a succesful cup stinks to high heaven! At least Russia has a modicum of infrastructure and mild summers. How is Qatar going to deal with scantilly clad women in their 115F heat? I wonder! Or do they simply believe no women will show up?

Or deal with ten's of thousands of blokes demanding 'ale'!!

Originally posted by scacchipazzo
Regardless, the fact that Qatar is given an opportunity in spite of the many factors against a succesful cup stinks to high heaven!

Well, of course it does. My point was that all involved knew perfectly well that FIFA stinks, long before the bid, and long before Panorama. And yet they dove in head-first, and are now complaining that they come up covered in something sticky. Sorry, but that means that both the FA and the KNVB are either stupid enough to ignore the stink, or corrupt enough not to care - or, perhaps even most likely, they thought they could enter without the grime sticking to them, in which case they're both of the above.
Really. Both FIFA and the IOC are based in Switzerland, coincidentally also the home of the anonymous bank account. UCI, too. And anyone who believes that that really is coincidental is an idiot, as is anyone who believes that the FA didn't know this. The only reason FIDE is in Athens is that there's no real sponsoring money in chess.

Richard

Originally posted by Shallow Blue
Well, of course it does. My point was that all involved knew perfectly well that FIFA stinks, long before the bid, and long before Panorama. And yet they dove in head-first, and are now complaining that they come up covered in something sticky. Sorry, but that means that both the FA and the KNVB are either stupid enough to ignore the stink, or corrupt e ...[text shortened]... e only reason FIDE is in Athens is that there's no real sponsoring money in chess.

Richard

We evidently do not disagree. All's I'm saying is the smell is really far from rosy. I'm sure all players knew what they were dealing with except perhaps Obama, who seems to know squat about most things!