Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition

[Village Idiot]

Are they going to ship that massive TV screen to a third world country too?

[Guest neesy111]

Also Qatar will be the worst World Cup ever, quite simply can't see how any culture and atmosphere is going to be generated in the place.  It'll be like visiting Dubai, very nice to see but little culture about.

 

Yeah.... that's what some people thought about Japan/Korea.

 

Japan and Korea have culture, Japan is one the top tourist destinations in the world despite the ridiculous cost of going there.

[Ameritoon]

Are they going to ship that massive TV screen to a third world country too?

 

[GM]

Are they going to ship that massive TV screen to a third world country too?

 

No, that's going to go into Semtex's living room when they're done with it.

[johnnypd]

Also Qatar will be the worst World Cup ever, quite simply can't see how any culture and atmosphere is going to be generated in the place.  It'll be like visiting Dubai, very nice to see but little culture about.

 

Yeah.... that's what some people thought about Japan/Korea.

 

sorry, but i just have to flag up the fact that you're seemingly comparing Qatar, a country that a few years back was one big sand dune, to the ancient cultures of Japan and Korea, with their rich heritages and many, many millions of people, cultural and technological accomplishments, legacies of artistic and scientific brilliance, high levels of human development, well respected civil societies, freedom of the press and so on. who the hell said Japan/Korea had no culture or atmosphere? idiotic in the extreme.

 

qatar is just a few dozen rich royals who probably live in london or paris paying off some corrupt bastards in order to stage an event that they should never have even been considered for. Japan and Korea are some of the most well respected and most well developed countries on the planet. it's kind of like comparing newcastle with sunderland...

[jdckelly]

the suns having a bit of a rant of "fix" reading it online and some attacks on the bbc and have fifa let a generation of football fans down.

nice to see their usual composed response

[Interpolic]

Where to buy alcohol in Doha

 

The only licensed shop you can buy alcohol at is the Qatar Distribution Company. To do so you need an alcohol permit, which can be obtained at the centre. Unfortunately, you can’t enter the shop without an alcohol permit, and you can only get an alcohol permit in the shop.

 

I've just got in the house and haven't read the whole thread, but this is one of the funniest things I've ever read.

 

Seriously, seriously, seriously - that's fucking hilarious man.

[LooneyToonArmy]

I hope Israel qualify and win the world cup in Qatar .

 

Let's just say their relations aren't the greatest

[johnnypd]

Qatar will change a bunch of their laws for the duration of the world cup, so i imagine the business with alcohol, women, the press, human rights and so on will be relaxed. but i think if a country HAS to do that for a world cup then it's basically a sign they shouldn't really be considered in the first place.

[LooneyToonArmy]

Also Qatar will be the worst World Cup ever, quite simply can't see how any culture and atmosphere is going to be generated in the place.  It'll be like visiting Dubai, very nice to see but little culture about.

 

Yeah.... that's what some people thought about Japan/Korea.

 

I've been to J-league and K-league games prior to the 2002 World Cup and the atmosphere at those games were good actually. I guess it was ignorance/lack of knowledge about those countries that brought them to that 'conclusion'.

[Oakie Doke]

I hope Israel qualify and win the world cup in Qatar .

 

Let's just say their relations aren't the greatest

that would actually be hilarious.

[Pandamninator]

Also Qatar will be the worst World Cup ever, quite simply can't see how any culture and atmosphere is going to be generated in the place.  It'll be like visiting Dubai, very nice to see but little culture about.

 

Yeah.... that's what some people thought about Japan/Korea.

 

I've been to J-league and K-league games prior to the 2002 World Cup and the atmosphere at those games were good actually. I guess it was ignorance/lack of knowledge about those countries that brought them to that 'conclusion'.

 

There's no way you can compare Japan and Korea with their infrastructure, population base and their (relative to Qatars at leats) soccer background that both have in place, something Qatar don't.

 

Qatar are also a decent electric car away from becoming bankrupt overnight.

 

[chicago_shearer]

Enjoy Brazil 2014, will be the last good one for a while.

[magpie418]

Just seen Sepp Blatter's post bid press conference. Some bloke from the beeb asked him who his favourite current Qatar player was.

 

'Eric Clapton', he replied.

[Ameritoon]

But despite concerns regarding the blistering heat it was Qatar who convinced the Fifa voters. "We know it would be a bold gamble and an exciting prospect but with no risk," the bid chief executive, Hassan Al-Thawadi, said. "Heat is not and will not be an issue."

 

A bold gamble with no risk? 

[magpie418]

Multi Millionaire footballers, 67 million just to premier league agents last year,

Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of us are bled dry in grass roots football

The hypocracy of our bid, talking nonsense of helping billions of youngsters through the empty rhetoric of  'Football United' whatever that means.

I could not think of anyone better to represent the paper thin facade of our game where everything is syphoned off to the top than a Royal prince, an old Etonian prime minister and the grotesqe ubercelebrity of brand Beckham.

Shed no tears for any of them, they will continue to line their pockets, that should heal their pain at least.

 

excellent post

[Geordie Ahmed]

Gutted we didnt get it BUT congrats to both countries  :clap:

[oldtype]

The entire nation of Qatar will basically be one huge, sterile, air-conditioned convention center. That just about sums it up.

 

 

[lxsln]

Is alcohol legal in Qatar?

[mrmojorisin75]

The only way Qatar will come close to working is if they make the flights cheap as fuck and flood the place with fans from around the world.

 

But let's face it, they'll have to be very, very cheap flights/hotels etc. to get enough people going.

[Shak]

Two terrible places for World Cup's IMO, shame that England didn't get one.

[Thomson Mouse]

Someone posted the first part of his comments earlier, but for me Taylor sums it up perfectly.

 

 

 

Former England manager Graham Taylor also dismissed criticism of the media and said nothing about Fifa surprised him any more.

 

"I'm just surprised that we're surprised," he said. "Fifa is an organisation that doesn't have to answer to anyone. What did we expect?

 

"Fifa for me is full of people who say 'yes' to your face and 'no' behind your back. Their reputation has not changed over many years.

 

"England have had little or no influence. We are considered to be arrogant and know-alls."

 

He also defended the English media, whose investigations into Fifa have been cited by some people as one of the reasons for the bid's failure.

 

"I'm not one of those blaming Panorama or the Sunday Times - this has been going on for years," he said.

 

"I just have a feeling that perhaps, just perhaps, it might now be time... they really need looking into, they should really be investigated - and of course our journalists are very good at that."

 

Taylor also criticised the decision to give the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, adding on BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "It really is surprising. Where is the heart and soul of football in Qatar? And yet that decision has been made."

[LooneyToonArmy]

Qatar will change a bunch of their laws for the duration of the world cup, so i imagine the business with alcohol, women, the press, human rights and so on will be relaxed. but i think if a country HAS to do that for a world cup then it's basically a sign they shouldn't really be considered in the first place.

 

It's not only Qatar...

http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/FIFA-to-be-exempt-from-taxes-20100416

http://2010-world-cup.co.cc/soccer-buzz-does-fifa-ask-for-too-much-legal-power-in-world-cup

 

Brazil is giving a FIFA a tax break (no taxes at all) and changed their laws to accommodate FIFA. Russia is going to lift visa requirements for visitors during the world cup. Who knows what else past hosts had to do to meet FIFA's demands?

[ohmelads]

Russia could turn out alright, everyone will be pissed up on cheap vodka and there'll be passionate interest from home crowds, plus their team may do OK. England and Spain undoubtedly had more to offer though, not just in terms of visiting fans but in putting on a spectacle due to their stadia and so on and proximity to countries whose fans will happily travel in big numbers to support the event.

 

Qatar on the other hand looks like being even worse than South Africa, which was the worst world cup I've ever seen in terms of passion, quality of football, everything. The home nation will get spanked, tepid interest from home fans, culture/religion that forbids alcohol, hard to get to, hottest 2 months of the year in Qatar means insane heat. One of the worst places you could have hosted a world cup. It's all well and good having these air-con stadiums but where will players train in 50+c temperatures?

 

I am sure there will be temporary law changes and designated boozing areas for foreigners but I can see fan numbers being far lower than they would be elsewhere.

 

Really the aim should be to promote football by providing excellent entertainment. It should be awarded on merit. Hopefully after Qatar FIFA will no longer be able to use their excuse of 'spreading the game around the world'. The aim should be to host it in passionate countries who will put on a good show without money being the primary objective, but we all know FIFA doesn't work that way.

[Colocho]

I think people are seriously underestimating Qatar. I stopped there on the way to India a few years ago, looks a really well developing country. Their GDP per capita is double ours - it's going to be a breathtaking World Cup.

 

Canny easy to retain a high GDP/capita when your population is little bigger than that of Tyneside.

 

That will be there strength though. Imagine a World Cup where there will be little than a few hours travel from one end of the country to the other. It's also important to consider the population growth the country has experienced (in the last 10 years the population has doubled) and will continue to experience. The population is around 1.3m, by 2022, who knows maybe 4/5m?

 

These 'OPEC' arab states are going to leave us in the dust in the next twenty or so years. Seriously, compare their development to ours. It's embarrassing for us, but this is the era we live in ...

 

It's also important to consider Asia. The likes of India and China, a third of the world's population between them will only be 4/5 flight hours away. Asia is turning into the future of football, lucrative, emerging markets will be where the money is whilst Europe is dragging itself out of the shit we put ourselves in. Football in no longer solely European, like it or lump it.

 

Lot of bollocks in there, like.

 

China and India are the future of the game? A third of the world's population and neither have even managed to qualify for a World Cup, ever. Neither country gives a toss about the sport, man.

 

Qatar. It's not much bigger that the Isle of Wight and has a population about the size of Tyne and Wear. Its population growth rate is 0.869% -- 130th in the world. It's migrant rate is -4.41 per 1,000 population – 198th in the world. And you think there'll be 4/5 million people there by 2022?

 

Give me a bag of whatever this chump has been smoking. It's obviously powerful stuff.

 

(Figures from the CIA World Factbook, by the way.)

 

You are missing the point. It's irrelevant that countries like India, China, Indonesia etc have shit football teams ... obviously you have never been to either country. Football is quickly becoming the second most popular sport in India (when I got off the plane there, they asked what team i support ffs). As for China, tens of millions of people watch Prem matches every weekend. To say these countries don't care about football is ludicrous and highly uninsightful.

 

Dubai's population for example, was around 600,000 in 1995, 1.2m by 2005 and estimated to be around 2.3m now ... Dubai is smaller than Qatar.

 

Those population growth and migrant rate figures are irrelevant, chump. This is going to be one of the largest development programmes the middle-east has seen. It's South Asia immigrants from the likes of India, Pakistan etc who are going to be building this World Cup, much like they have built Dubai.