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Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition


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Qatar is a country the size of Wales, with even less people living there, a country with no football heritage or even any stadiums, an unsuitable climate, and no real opportunity for a meaningful legacy.  It's such a f***ing joke on every level that it's incredible that FIFA had the nerve to even think about voting for it.

 

Meanwhile by the time we get to 2022 it will have been 56 years since the last time it was held in England, a country that has some of the best stadiums and one of the most fervant football cultures in world football.

 

Joke, joke joke.  Really pisses me off, this.

 

:thup:

 

I'm angry about the whole thing, really am. Every game would have had huge attendances in England + easy to travel to as well as the things you mentioned. I fail to see, even with a massive bribe, how they'd make more money out of it being in Qatar.

 

English FA needs to stand firm, as well as other countries. To hell with disrupting Europe's elite leagues to make it easier for a corrupt arsehole nation like Qatar.

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It's pathetic how little fans count in the overall picture. The ideal World Cup for us ordinary folk is somewhere where the facilities are good, travel is easy (both to and from the country and internally), and there's plenty to do between matches – somewhere that makes for a nice summer trip.

 

Not a fucking tiny desert state where no one in their right minds would take a holiday, where alcohol is forbidden and where ordinary folk might get thrown in prison just for being, say, gay. Nor in winter at a time when people might have difficulty travelling.

 

Germany, Brazil -- these are good places for a World Cup. Qatar, Russia -- hopeless. Though at least you can get a drink in Russia.

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Premier League clubs (and other leagues) should just play without their internationals, rather than take a month off. Those two pre-seasons are a complete joke man, once again club football is forgotten about in favour of the internationals.

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Guest DebuchyAndTheBeast

Scrap the CL and Europa League for that season and play the December games midweek to catch up. Problem solved.

Also make Qatar pay for all the prize money and lost TV rights.

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Guest Roger Kint

Premier League clubs (and other leagues) should just play without their internationals, rather than take a month off. Those two pre-seasons are a complete joke man, once again club football is forgotten about in favour of the internationals.

 

If France dont make it  :sweetjesus:

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For what it is worth, I don't think the actual World Cup in Qatar will be much trouble at all. It is a small, compact, and organised country with an incredible fortune at its disposal. I'm sure they will do everything possible to make the tournament hospitable to foreign travelers and to ease transportation and housing concerns. I actually think it will be quite a show.

 

The real one people should be worrying about is Russia. I believe this has to the potential to go very badly.

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That's all well and good but the World Cup should be somewhere else, right?  Why do we have to keep having it in wackier and wackier places meaning that the people in the countries that have made football what it is for over a century never get to see it in their own country?  The odd one fair enough, I could see the point in having one in the States and in Japan/South Korea and in South Africa, but that sort of choice shouldn't be so frequent IMO.

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That's all well and good but the World Cup should be somewhere else, right?  Why do we have to keep having it in wackier and wackier places meaning that the people in the countries that have made football what it is for over a century never get to see it in their own country?  The odd one fair enough, I could see the point in having one in the States and in Japan/South Korea and in South Africa, but that sort of choice shouldn't be so frequent IMO.

 

Don't see what's wacky about Russia like, they've a rich footballing (and wider sporting) history and tradition.

 

The main issues surrounding that one are non-footballing reasons: corruption, social inequalities, visas for foreigners etc.

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I think it's pretty wacky when it was up against England and Spain.  Why did Russia get it when England hasn't had it for so long and thoroughly deserves another one?

 

But by the way it's done (by region) using those reasons it'd never get too host it (so long as one of the status quo bid for it) despite that Russia has never hosted it, has the capability too and has appeared in 9 World Cup finals (under various guises).

 

I was as narked as anyone that England didn't get a sniff but for footballing reasons I don't see the problem with it going to Russia.

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To be frank with you, it is not possible for me to care less about England and it's hope of a World Cup. Its citizens have direct access to the most watched and followed league in the world for nine months of every single year. People will live without it. Undoubtedly, it would be an exciting event, probably akin to Germany 2006 in terms of being very well run while also being very familiar. Brazil is the most successful nation in the history of the sport, and will have waited 64 years to host once more. No one has done it more than twice.

 

If I was in control of everything, I would alternate the tournament between the fully industrialised football hotbeds and nations that either are mad for the game, but developing economically or economically developed, but not known for football. I do agree that a run of four World Cups that counts Brazil as the most stable location is quite ridiculous.

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the fact that England only one vote (iirc) was the ridiculous thing when from an infrastructure point of view there's few easier places to hold it, good level of public transport, stable country, high level stadiums required for such an event already exist and for the most part wouldn't turn into massive white elephants just sitting there decaying after the party's left and a very football mad population which would fill the grounds for each game.

 

The more I think of the very existence of FIFA and the shit they pull when a world cup comes to a country makes me more and more disillusioned with international football and wonder why the hell should I give 2 shits about it, it takes a lot of effort to make the elite clubs normally utterly morally bankrupt in every sense look like good guys but my god compared to FIFA, UEFA and all the sniveling spineless football associations throughout the world they look like bloody saints and frankly the game of football would be best served by them saying a big fuck you to all of the above and striking off on their own and taking all the best players with them.

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A big part of the problem is that the people making the decisions are all obsessed with the idea of "legacy", as if the only point of staging a World Cup was to leave behind a bit of sporting infrastructure... like the now barely used white elephant stadiums in South Africa.

 

England already having great stadiums then becomes part of the problem. "No point doing the World Cup there, they don't need the legacy."

 

I seem to remember Qatar arguing that they would build temporary, prefabricated stadiums for the World Cup and then afterwards donate these to needy undeveloped countries who are gagging for new places to play football.

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IOC isn't exactly happy with FIFA over this winter world cup thing since its threatening to get in the way of their winter olympics and is even a threat of throwing football out of the Olympics-which will not upset Blatter and Co in the slightest

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