I don’t know if the voting for the World Cup would make a good plot line for a James Bond film – not enough world domination, no sexy Bond girls (Mrs. Beckham? Thanks, but no thanks). I have never been a big fan of anything English; being born and raised in Scotland does that to you. Living in Thatcher’s testing ground for wondrous things like the Poll Tax makes you slightly anti England. That and the fact that when Scottish athletes (read David Wilkie, Allan Wells) won Olympic medals they suddenly became British but Daley Thompson et. al. were always English. So it might come as a surprise that I am writing something that supports England, and whilst I am at it, Australia (another sporting bunch of Xenophobes)
It came to pass that FIFA has announced the winners of the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, with biggest surprises being that England received just two votes in the first round of the voting for the 2018 tournament and were rapidly eliminated; Australia actually fared worse gaining just one vote for the 2022 World Cup.
Much has been publicised re. the alleged corruption in the voting process, and living in New Zealand I have not seen the Panorama documentary on the alleged tainting of the process. It goes without saying though that Wikileaks have produced some rather unsurprising allegations about President Putin and his supposed links to organised crime. It is very easy to put two and two together and make four.
Would I have gone to England to see the World Cup – no; will I be going to Russia – hell no!! And as for Qatar the answer is again NO! It must be the smallest population to ever receive one of the world’s biggest sporting events. The prospect of air conditioned, indoor games must have impressed FIFA delegates more than any ‘gifts’ they may have received from one of the most wealthy nations – which also happens to be the biggest producer of greenhouse gases per head of population. Good to see environmental issues are a priority for FIFA too!
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