Thetownend.com

I know, i'm literally stunned, reeling even

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9099326.stm


The only suprising thing is that neither of them are Jack Warner.

We all know FIFA officials are bent and will sell their votes. The difference this time is that our press, who are experts at setting people up, are on the case and so this is likely to be just the first of many similar sting operations. The bigger question is how it will affect our chances of winning the vote - it could go either way.

I'd guess we've blown our chances of getting the Nigerian vote anyway :)

 :jawdrop:

This must be the worlds easiest newspaper sting operation?

The evidence must have taken at least 8 minutes to compile. 7 of them setting up the hidden camera?

Just about all the 24 people who will decide who will host the World Cup are open to offers. Just read any of the books by Andrew Jennings on the subject.

It's good to know that the Nigerian,who was caught up in this sting operation, said that 'England have and will not offer any money'.

I don't expect England to get the WC anyway, Russia are always prepared to thrown more money at Fifa and pay the bribes required Abramovich has probably already tapped up most of the commitee.

What does really get me though is that the newspaper in question must realise this could very well have an effect on englands bid but they still carry on attempting to embarass fifa  - we all know it goes on, not so sure the press care about the england bid though anyway

England won't get it because we have to much footballing history and culture, and we'd want to do things our way. Fifa want the host nation to be a blank canvas which they can mould and run as they please, as happened in south africa

The story might well do England a big favour as all the people that have been caught have admitted that England don't offer bribes, and FIFA might be forced to give it to England as they are clean. There is also talk over the last few months that there was a Panaorama programme in the pipeline in regards to the voting process for 2018/2022 in regards to bribes and corruption at FIFA, but it looks like the Sunday Times got there first.

As people have already said, this is not a surprise. Once you read the books 'How They Stole The Game?' and 'Foul!',you soon realise that for the last 40 years that they are one the most corrupt sporting governing bodies around. I am certainly not holding my breath for an in depth FIFA investigation, after the cover-up they did over Jack Warner's selling of Trinidad's World Cup tickets, and he'll do anything not to pay the T&T players any money :

http://transparencyinsport.org/Warner_changes_the_law_to_avoid_paying_socca_warriors/Warriors-and-Hummer.pdf

And to prove the top brass at FIFA are up to their necks in corruption :

http://transparencyinsport.org/World-Cup-Winners/PDF-documents/The-2010-World-Cup-Winners.pdf

FIFA....NOT For The Good Of The Game !!!

Good to see that Blatter is focussing on the really important issue with the corruption....

"One can ask whether such an action is appropriate, trying to set traps for people. It is a deeply rooted problem with the English media. Who is benefitting from this situation and who is being harmed, we are asking ourselves why did it happen and why did it happen specifically by English journalists? We are looking at that".

So the real problem here isn't the corruption, but our journalists for reporting the corruption.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9157121.stm

The question is not 'who is benefiting and who is being harmed?'. The question is 'who needs to stop benefiting so that football stops being harmed?'

We often complain about the FA and the FL, but FIFA really is a joke.

Serves the FA right for choosing fucking MK as a venue. Karma, innit?

Hosting the World cup has just become a way for other football federations across the world to tease us.

I couldnt care less anymore.

I follow football in the same way I did as a kid. By this I mean I try my hardest to ignore the politics of football at all levels.

Pre-Mass media these people were to able to do their shady business in peace... It's depressing reading about the ways they try and cover the most blatant corruption. It's embarressing, we're not stupid.

I am, speak for yourself

I thought this might be the knew spinoff game from EA.

Or Kamara, possibly.

What, FIFA Corruption; "It's In The Game!"

Unbelievable!!!!!

If we have harmed our bid there are plenty more bribing days left until voting day.

Got to play the system.

Our media have been pretty restrained in their criticism of Blatter and FIFA with regard to the corruption that everyone knows is there. There's also the suggestion that they should restrain even more until the voting is done.

But doesn't that make us just as bad as everyone else - keeping quiet so we don't upset Blatter?

He should have been taken down a long time ago. If it's our media that does it and we lose out on hosting the WC as a result, would that really be such a bad thing? Someone needs to take a stand and no one else is likely to.

But Fifa are so currupt that Blatter will get back in regardless he has his bag men in tow  - voting for the WC is to be held in private so I expect they can talk about who got the biggest bribe from whom

It's the Panorama expose on FIFA tonight - 830pm on BBC1.

Based on this I'd say we're fucked:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11841783

Though there is a slim chance it could actually help us. It might make some of them vote for us, so there won't be any more accusations made against them - a vote for England could be viewed as a "clean" vote. Or it could mean the vote has to be postponed whilst they investigate the allegations.

The more I think about it the more I'm in favour of the BBC and the rest of our media holding FIFA to task. No one else is prepared to do it. If it means alienating us in world football then so be it, someone has to lead the campaign to clean up FIFA or it will just continue.

Only found 3 corrupt FIFA Exec members? What the hell do we pay our licence fee for?

We've been alienated for years.

Only in England would the press do all they can to ruin the bid, the Government should have pulled rank and delayed allowing it to be shown until after the world cup has been awarded. But nah we'll just self destruct our own bid, pretty pathetic if you ask me.....

It's actually 4 they name, you forgot Jack "the tout" Warner.


Apparently we've been doing a fair bit recently to try and sort that out. Not that it will do us any good though.

When we get to the stage where the government can stop the press from broadcasting/publishing stories they find inconvenient, we'll have bigger problems than whether or not we get to host the World Cup

I've finally decided I don't want the World Cup. Seeing various notable Brits being nice to various corrupt FIFA types makes my skin crawl. Send it to Spain/Portugal and Qatar and let them explain how they definitely weren't colluding.

Fair point but for once it'd be nice for the press to actually support something rather than try to ruin things all the time...........but then that doesn't make headlines.
With the Olympics no one actually thought we'd win, everyone assumed Paris was a given so the bid process didn't seem to get much attention, but rest assured the minute something goes wrong our media will pounce all over it and make the country even more of a laughing stock than it already is. It's just a sad state of affairs really

Don't know if its been posted and cant be assed to read through all this, but on BBC1 now..

Panorama: Fifa's Dirty Secrets!

Let us be honest... England will not get the World Cup - Kick 'em in the nut Panorama. Perhaps, Donal MacIntyre can apply for a job at FIFA too?

FIFA are corrupt. They are all at it. It started with Havelange, whose son-in-law Teixeira has been implicated tonight, and it has continued for the last 40 years, and they use the Swiss secrecy laws to hide behind.

The only way to bring down FIFA, is for the big European countries (England, Germany, Spain, France), the ones who pays the big money for the TV rights to pull out of FIFA, and they would be stuffed, as there could be no credible World Cup  without them.

We should withdraw before the vote. Otherwise whoever get's it, it's tainted.

I'm in! I like it :)

It's this thinking that made this nation once the envy of the world.

[url width=395 height=249]http://www.christchurch-il.us/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/st_george_flag_banner.266205626_std.gif[/url]

You know what? I think we should pull out of the whole thing, and set up are own world cup every four years - split the world championship up -  like in boxing - that'll learn them meddling fifa types

Let's be honest nothing new was mentioned and what was is already in the public domain, I'm all for exposing corruption but couldn't the beeb have shown this a few weeks ago instead of waiting until just a few days before the decision is to be made ?

If I'm honest though I think 2018 wil lgo to Russia and 2022 will go to Australia - both of who have big hitters behind them and a surplus of 'spare' money

Hopefully they've got the cash to allow FIFA not to pay any taxes at all then.  We clearly haven't.  I agree with sutton, we should withdraw.

One thing that is clear, given all the corruption, I now understand why Milton Keynes were involved.

They had a Special Report programme on SSN last night talking about the 2018 bid.

I nearly vomited when Wankelman popped onto the TV screen saying how wonderful it would be to have the World Cup in Franchise country, with the plastic bowl behind him.

I thought the same after watching it, but the newspaper articles I read on it suggested they were major accusations. Plus there was some new evidence - they had tracked some of those bribes to the FIFA officials which hadn't been done before. The Warner accusations were already common knowledge but maybe the extra exposure will get FIFA to act.

But I still think that the BBC should have waited, unless they had something far bigger than what they actually had.

As others have said, FIFA needs to be reformed and probably the only way that is going to happen is if UEFA force the issue, withdrawing from FIFA if necessary. The problem with that is you'd need all the big countries to do it, Spain and Portugal won't be interested as they're happy playing the game and don't give a fuck what they have to do to get the WC.

Unfortunately we aren't much better - Cameron, Beckham and Prince William will all be kissing up to Jack Warner and the rest of the bent FIFA hierarchy. Not sure withdrawing our bid will do anything, except make us look like bad losers, but we could be using it as a platform to drive change rather than getting in to bed with a corrupt FIFA executive.

It won't go to us. Let's be honest FIFA will use any excuse in the book to ensure England doesn't ever host a WC again. First it was the hooligans in 2006 now it's some soft paper talk bollocks. I mean give over. We're the creators of the game, have one of the best national stadiums in the world and some good stadia to go with it. We've got the Olympics here in 2 years time. We're more than capable of holding a WC. I guess all that means nothing because a few blokes have been dodgy. Makes me laugh.

Im going to blow up fifa and make sure the world cup goes to outer mongolia

Thatll learn them

Gary Lineker who's part of the 2018 bid,says that England have been knocked out in Round One.

Blatter about to announce the winners for 2018 and 2022.

Russia will get it. Easy to make more money out of it.

2018 - Russia announced as the winner.

Russia got it. Joke.

If England was knocked out in the first round, that'll prove FIFA are a worst than a joke.

2022 - Footballing super power of Qatar

And Qatar for 2022. Effing joke.

Air conditioned stadia...here they come !!!

I had money on Russia winning it, they have the most money behind them, same with Quatar. I'm sure Blatter and the rest of the corrupt twats will enjoy the money they've made out of this.

CHEERS BLATTER YOU CUNT

Russia will not get many fans from other counties going to there. You will need to fly between host cities, in planes that have some of the worst safety records.

go, go Aeroflot!

Don't all their stadiums have shitty running tracks round the pitch?

Remember that Fifa inspection team described Qatar World Cup as "high risk''!!

Blatter and Beckenbauer were openly supporting Russia,so no surprises there.

After seeing the Spain/Portugal bid presenter saying that "FIFA is clean" in his closing statement.

Here's to you Senor  :smugfu:  :smugfu:

I hope they can run a world cup better than their power stations...

Corrupt cunts

Russia was bottom in the financial/infrastructure reports that came out the other day from FIFA.

i am not shocked, but it's pretty good for me going to estonia and then across to st petersberg for some games, if we make it there

Are you moving to Estonia?!

Apparently Lineker is saying that we came 4th out of four !!!

Fucking joke.

At least Milton Keynes will not host any WC matches.

i worded that badly...no i'm not, well not yet anyway

Ok, Russia I kind of get. I don't like it, but I get why Russia won it.

Qatar on the other hand. What the fuck?!  :hmmm: If a country like Qatar won it who have never even been in the World Cup, then it makes me wonder if I will ever see a World Cup in England in my lifetime as Shearer said!!  :no:

Russia win.......no corruption at all then....tooooootally innocent!

The African nations will be keen to lose quickly in Russia!

Yup what a bollocks article! We've had Asia, the U.S and a number of European countries in recent history. Can he not see the pattern below?...

South Africa
Brazil
Russia
Qatar

Is it any surprise we didn't win it? FIFA wants countries NOT well known for football to host it going forward it looks like...

...hang on, should Wales have bid instead of England?  :hmmm:

Agree with this.

Qatar is to football what Norfolk is to Alpine Skiiing.  The World Cup will go there in 2022, and then leave.  And a few weeks later, it will all be forgotten.

Good luck to Russia.

Brazil not known for football?

Yup, the stadiums will be dismantled soon after... pointless.

I'm glad the US didnt get it again though, they had it in '94 ffs.

Ta-daaaaa

A bit like USA '94.

Seriously, you cannot play football in Qatar in June/July because it's too hot. I know they are talking about air conditioned stadia but it is a joke.

I personally don't think Brazil will be ready for 2014.

Brazil will be ready, and a lot better run than South Africa.

In a way i'm glad we haven't won. It would have meant pandering to the every whim of the sleazy scumbags at fifa HQ.

The logic's really very simple: Russia and Qatar, the two nations most willing (and actually able - yes, I'm looking at you here nearly bankrupt Spain and Portugal) to offer decent bribes.

Ok yes, I screwed up on that one and how I worded it.

What I meant was, it is clear that after a number of years of developed countries hosting the world cup, Fifa is now keen to give preference to areas/continents of the world who have not hosted this in the past. Hence why they have picked countries from Africa, South America, Eurasia (Russia is practically a continent itself anyway!) and the middle east.

...I might go put a bet on Australia to host it in 2026?

Well the BBC certainly stuck the boot in on Monday. Doubtless there is s alot of corruption in FIFA, more or less confirmed with the winning bids, but to broad cast that programme 3 days before your country is asking for the votes of the accused, that is dumb. It should be renamed the ABBC, (Anti British Broad casting Corp). Putin, didn't go cos he knew they'd bought enough votes.
Corruption is a way of life both in Russia & the Arab gulf states, & thanks to oil & gas they both have enough money to grease enough palms with silver.  

Amen to that, as well as a media that's not...cough...entirely independent (though that last bit doesn't apply to the BBC of course)

The editor of World Soccer magazine has said on SSN that Brazil are due to have the games all around the country and the airports, let alone the stadia, have not been started yet.

He has a conspiracy theory that if they are not ready, FIFA will send it to England or the US, as they can hold the tournament very quickly.

2026 will be back to Africa again I believe.

So that's why Abramovic was there then !!

Wankleman now on SSN. He has a face for radio.

Blatter was facing the possibility of a challenge for re-election from Asia.To head this off Qatar

have been used as the sweetener to his possible re-election.Spain have a lot to answer for,but

it's FIFA politics and i would really like to know who Thompson voted for,after our elimination and for WC 2022?

I don't. Europe/Asia will get it.

Oh fuck off. The Panorama programme had about as much to do with it as the Sunday Times expose or the Mail on Sunday hatchet job on Triesman (both of who's sister papers have been among the leaders of the anti-BBC pack this week).

You've directly contradicted yourself immediately after:
Which is it? The "BBC as a threat to the nation" or obvious corruption in the whole process?

Here's a list of other stuff you could randomly blame:
1) The Sunday Times/Mail on Sunday/News of the World - all done bid-damaging exposes
2) Prince William, obviously secretly subverted the bid because he and his family are German
3) Villa/Birmingham fans
4) David Cameron associating himself with the bid - no-one likes him at the best of times and everyone hates a kiss-ass, double whammy
5) Nick Clegg. Just because he's a twat
6) The FA for being one of the most staggeringly incompetent governing bodies in the history of football (after FIFA, of course)
7) The bid team for including the abomoniation that is Milton Keynes
8) The bid team for focusing on the technical bid when they should have been hawking round envelopes full of cash.
9) David Icke. That bastard's bound to be at the bottom of it somewhere along the line.

BBC, my fucking arse. Do me a bloody favour.

Here's to the isle of man 2030 then

Unconfirmed reports say that we only got 2 votes in the 1st round.

Russia got to 12 votes in Round 2,thus winning.

Looks like Uncle Jack Warner didn't vote for us.

Incidentally,the average June/July temps in Qatar are 41C.

Maybe if they ask us we can tell them to fuck off. Does this mean we can now call off the friendly in thailand after having prostituted ourselves going to Trinidad and Tobago. Maybe now we can just have the friendlies we want to have rather than the fucking useless ones that are designed to win us friends. Insular is the new bidding to host

Do you think it helped at all.

Fully agree on that, even thought Rooney stil wants to go to Thailand though.

Any team that has David Beckham as a spokesman is asking for trouble,really.With the other two numbnuts over there we had no chance.Its obvious Mark E Smith should have been our ambassador.

Fuck off adje every country said our bid was good we all know the presentation is not the reason we did not get it.

I think it made little to fuck all difference. And I'm already fed up of the Mail/NewsCorp wrapping themselves in the flag and using it as another stick in their ongoing ideological row with the BBC which has fuck all to do with the World Cup while ignoring their own similar (but significantly less well-founded) stories. And tabloid dog-nodders just going along with whatever they're told by shits like Murdoch.

Absolutely. It was Cameron.

England only got 2 votes !!!

The difference is, we can chose to boycott Murdoch etc (i.e. Liverpool) but can't the BBC (without going to prison). An investigation 3 days before a vote? On a subject which tells us essentially nothing new. The timing obviously was quite deliberate but not in the sense of hoping to clean up FIFA.

I don't think the Sunday Times/Panorama had anything to do with it. We all know FIFA are corrupt. Just read the books 'How They Stole The Game?' and 'Foul! The Secret World of FIFA' and the allegations are out there...and due to the lack of legal action against these books by the FIFA members say that these stories must be true, and most of the allegations in the Panorama programme were already in the public domain.

And what in the name of jimminy heck has that got to do with whether or not we didn't get the World Cup? Do you think FIFA gave it to Russia as a blow against the tyranny of the license fee?

Im a little bit suspicious that some people started cheering before they announced the winner!

Full results of 2018 voting:

Round 1: England 2 votes, Netherlands/Belgium 4 votes, Spain/Portugal 7 votes and Russia 9 votes.

Round 2: Netherlands/Belgium 2 votes, Spain/Portugal 7 votes and Russia 13 votes (Russia obtain absolute majority)

Effectively it was 1 vote from another country,unless Geoff Thompson forgot to vote for us.

 Every cloud has a silver lining and in this instance, it's knowing the likes of Wankleman and Lansdown have had their megalomania curbed.

 I've no problem with mother Russia getting it.....the last week has given us a bit of an insight into what life must be like in Kazan and Novosibirsk....so anything other than industrial quantities of vodka which brings a bit of joy into their lives, has to be applauded.

 Qatar is ace though....you really couldn't make it up.

Having seen the feature/report on Saransk, grim isn't the word.It was best know in Stalin's time
for it's Gulag.

Am I alone in being glad we didn't get it?  The only way to win the vote was to throw taxpayers money (or money from the FA) at corrupt, thieving scum.  The decisions prove this.  Also we would have to give FIFA tax exemption, fuck that.  Milton Keynes now gets fuck all, good.

It comes to something when FIFA are more corrupt than our politicians, but they've managed it.

I wouldn't rule that out. Two votes? FFS. You don't need an indepth Sunday Times expose to tell you that's bent

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm glad. But I was and remain pretty ambivalent about it for all the reasons you highlight above. Especially the bit about FIFA getting to pretty much dictate our laws and getting legal exemption from pretty much everything, including taxes.

Lets not bother bidding for a 2030 bid as is already being mentioned, Uruquay/Argentina will get it in the centenary year.

My thoughts are Russia, fair enough, a big player on the world stage who hasnt had it, dont have a problem with that. Qatar is a joke.

Fully agree with the fact that it's good that the plastic club doesn't get what Wankleman wated for his plastic club, and it's good that we haven't resorted to bungs. If Panorama wants to do something good, try and find out the bungs given to FIFA execs to 'help' with their decisions for these votes, and not somthing that happened 10 years ago, which has been covered.

It'll probably be the only way to bring down Blatter and FIFA.

It would require changes to UK law approved by Parliament,including the suspension for the WC
of all workers rights.

Of course not, but there's a difference between trying to justify Sunday Times et al attacks as the result of free press and trying to fend off accusations made by a state broadcaster (BBC) 3 days before the vote.

Other countries, not unreasonably, are going to see a contradiction between one organ of the state attacking them (BBC) and another (FA and Government) not.

A substantial amount of workers rights comes under the EU. Parliament approval has bugger all to do with it.

At least we did better than the Aussies. They only got ONE vote :

Full results of 2022 voting:

Round 1: Australia1 vote, Japan 3 votes, US 3 votes, South Korea 4 votes and Qatar 11 votes.


Round 2: Japan 2 votes, South Korea 5 votes, US 5 votes and Qatar 10 votes.

Round 3 South Korea 5 votes, US 6 votes and Qatar 11 votes.

Round 4 US 8 votes and Qatar 14 votes (Qatar obtain absolute majority)

No you are not alone. A more corrupt body than FIFA would be hard to find, they have been for absolutely years and I personally think the media (Panorama et al) were right to take them to task no matter what the timing. This just shows twats like Warner and Blatter and Co. up for what they really are, and I hope this gives the green light to the media for open season researching into their personal interests. FIFA executives ?....I shit em !
Silver lining about MK Donuts though !

Yeah but to be fair they didn't have a voter on the committee...

What does Platini mean by "arduous relationship"? Just that our media does it's job and calls the FIFA executive a bunch of corrupt, power hungry, egotistical, brain dead morons? Or something else?

That's a fair point. I just hate the hypocrisy of the Murdoch-owned press and the Mail, their petty jingoism wrapped as principle and the fact that neither of them give a flying shite about whether we host the World Cup, they're just using it as part of their ongoing battle with the Beeb.

That's why Cameron (and other similar political figures from other bidding nations) was out there. To reassure FIFA they'd be getting what they asked for on the political/legislative front.

I think the IOC could give FIFA a good run for their money.

To be fair to the IOC, after Salt Lake City and the cash for votes scandal, they have seemingly tried to clean up their act. When Hayatou was mentioned by Panorama accepting bungs, the IOC said they will investigate the matter, as he is also an IOC member, whilst FIFA said they will do nothing.

Saying that I still believe that anyone that has it's HQ in Switzerland are open up to corruption, as the organisations like FIFA/IOC/UEFA hide behind their privacy laws.

There are some great comments on 606 :

I've been to Qatar and its a s(hit) hole ......... how on the hell on earth they blew the air conditioning theory up FIFA's (A)rses and got away with it, I will never know.

It's so hot that air conditioning does'nt even work only acclimatisation works.

As for the laws: Beer & Sex are out unless you take your goats with you, but avoid the stoning as you make a swift exit to the airport.

Let's face it, the Swiss don't care where the money comes from, they don't ask questions. (Is Sven a bit Swiss?)

We were never going to get it. Not sure why evreryone is annoyed tbh. Fifa will never give England another WC or not at least until Blatter is gone.

Whether it was obvious or not, it's still annoying to witness such corruption...

According to your quoted source, Platini didn't say "arduous relationship", the reporter did

I think we now know where Abramovic's money has gone as he's not spending any on Chelski at the moment !!

Went to the 2 countries most likely to pay the biggest backhanders.

Simple as that. Sigh.

Although I disagree that Englands bid couldnt have been improved. Its a disgrace that the FA are still trying to promote football Franchisement by including McDons in their bid.

That's a bright spot now as their ground will stay half finished, and they'll gradually wither and die.

Wankleman was on Sky saying that they'll still be turning it in a 22k stadium by doing the top tier...even though they'll never fill it !!!

I heard the final is being played in chernobyl

FIFA are aiming for an explosive atmosphere

(text just sent to me)

An example of just how much money Qatar we're throwing at their bid,was the fact that they

were paying Zidane 15 million quid to act as their emissary.Petro dollars go a long way these days.

Here's another point. Have Qatar actually got a football team?

Yeah. nearly all made up naturalised brazilians I believe

Chernobyl's in Ukraine.  (Sorry Tans)

Yep though the players always have chesty coughs.

Were they the ones to start the trend of rubbing Vick into their shirts?

Meh. It wasnt before though was it before they split it up?

Anyhow i try to help you and you throw it back in my face!

Somehow FIFA needs to be brought down but god knows how they have been getting away with it for too many years an nobody has bothered yet

They were russian to make a decision

2022 voting breakdown :

First round: Australia 1, Japan 3, USA 3, South Korea 4, Qatar 11 (Australia eliminated)

Second round: Japan 2 votes, Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 10 votes and USA 5 votes (Japan eliminated)

Third round: Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 6 votes (Korea Republic eliminated)

Fourth round: Qatar 14 votes and USA 8 votes (Qatar obtained an absolute majority)

Am I the only person that thinks the right result was achieved in the end? Russia and Qatar have never had the WC and both have the resources to do everything they need to do for a successful WC. With the exception of Australia every other country has hosted the WC before, some of them very recently. It would have been a joke if Spain / Portugal, USA or Japan had won.

The big issue is whether they will get everything ready in time. They really should have firm deadlines for work to be completed and if it isn't they should take it off them and give it to a standby country that could host at short notice such as us and the USA.

I'm waiting to see what our media does next. Will they continue their FIFA corruption crusade? Or will they give up on it now the voting is over. They will make themselves look like cunts if they suddenly fall silent.

I've read a good few books on Russian/Soviet football and it's fascinating and they already have a rich football history. Why some media outlets are describing Russia as a 3rd world football nation I do not know.

We have isolated ourselves from the World game... Perhaps the F.A. should reject entry to the World Cup like we did in the good ol' days. How dare they champion OUR sport :)

Assassinating Sepp Blatter would be a start! 

Personally Russia has too much to do with all the work they need to do. I have said previously that Russia should host a European Championships before hosting a WC. That way at least they'll have a number of stadia plus the infrastructure to go with it, and people can judge them on how they've done.

Also the country is being run by the Mafia, and they haven't sorted out the racism in the country, so I wonder how many African/Asian teams are looking forward to going out there.

I hope the press goes for FIFA and continue their investigation into them. If they can find the evidence to bring down Blatter and co. they might change FIFA for the better.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/england-2026-bid-to-be-based-on-bribes-and-poison-201012023312/

the final word :)

I think we will now see the english written and spoken media step up their campaign against Fifa, we know that the English press are good at investigating, I think fifa can expect a whole host of trouble over the coming weeks and months and I'm not sure if the press will stop until they get what they want - change in fifa - hopefully

In order to attempt to secure the vote of Jack Warner, did we not set up numerous football schools out in Trinidad?  Lets withdraw funding here for a start.

Also I believe there is now no need for this friendly that is planned in Thailand as even he didnt vote for us!

Like many I have no real issue with Russia hosting 2018.  Qatar is a whole other matter!  The FIFA technical bid document clearly outlined the potential health risks to players, supporters and FIFA delegates!  People will say the money Qatar has to offer will mean all will be ok but the risks are huge!  Just imagine if something should happen to a player/fan during the tournament.

On England, Nearly £500m has been spent on a bid we were never going to win a million years! Alot will blame the Press and Beeb, however I dont think anything hugely surprising has come out.  The Panarama show was pretty poor really. 

I do hope now the British media go for Blatter, Warner and all the FIFA cronies!  Reform is essential!  Like has been mentioned look at the IOC.  There are well over 100 voters in the Olympic bidding process and I believe the voters are not allowed to have secret meetings with bid teams for a start.

The sad thing is it appears that Sepp Blatter is about to about to win another election unapposed.

I'll be 50 by 2030 and it isnt going to come here for a long long while!

Blatters on the way out. Aids apparently

Qatar is a complete joke.

San Marino have never had the world cup either johnny.

Football is dominated by money and this just brings that fact home

Fully agree. They have ONE football stadium, and the only Olympic medals they have ever won are by Africans they have paid to become Qatari.

Get ready for a Qatari team full of Brazilians for 2022.

I'll be nearly 40 by 2022, fuck worrying  about shit that far in the future.

SSN are saying a FIFA ExCo member told the England 2018 team that they have been humiliated due to the British media. They apparently said that they might still not have won, even then.

Time to go for the FIFA juggular.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1335107/WORLD-CUP-2018-Un-English-video-screened-FIFA-delegates.html

It is understood that media coverage of the bidding race was raised by Fifa president Sepp Blatter at an executive
meeting on wednesday, a cuttings file of the most negative coverage was handed round among the members.

Apparently Warner after having assured (sic) that he would vote for England, changed his mind and voted for Russia.
He was then expecting Russia to back the USA bid for 2022.It wasn't forthcoming.

I still can't quite believe the 2022 World Cup is going to Qatar, a country that's smaller than Yorkshire and with no football culture or heritage.  In their never ending quest to hunt for 'legacy', I fully expect the 2026 competition to be held on the moon.

Naah, Mars.

**standard response**  No, there'd be no atmosphere. **standard response**

I don't really know what the fuss is all about we got a certificate presented by Sepp Blatter and a shitload of patronising comments for our £50m and total fucking grovelling over the last few years. We could have ended up empty handed. 

:clap:

FIFA are on a mission to bring football to all corners of the globe. The fact we have Russia up next, followed by Qatar should come as no surprise. Previous tournaments held in South Korea/Japan, South Africa and even going back as far as USA '94 have shown us what we should have really expected.

Any future World cup will either go to a developing nation, like those i've mentioned, or a giant of the game which could hugely benefit from the regeneration the Cup would give, like Brazil.

We could have presented the most brilliant and best bid in the history of World cup bids and still wouldnt have got it, because football is already extremely well developed over here and thats not the legacy Blatter and co are looking for.

Scotland would have a better chance of winning a World cup bid than England, the only problem with that though is the vast majority of money needed to pay for it would come from the English tax payer.

Is FIFA corrupt? Of course it is, but this wasnt the reason why our bid was ignored so unanimously.

The only chance we'll ever have is if a host nation has a major catastrophe and has to pull out of its hosting obligations leaving the way open for someone to step in at very short notice.

aint read the thread so apologies if anyone has already said what i'm gonna do.anyway,i think there is an easy way out of this.fifa would have pissed plenty of nations off(australia getting 1 vote and losing to who they did is worse than how england had it imo)
tell them to get fucked and see if other nations will jump aboard.

if the world cup went to the previous winner of it,those crooked cunts couldn't take their bungs to secure wins for crooked nations.it is fair, and offers a bigger incentive to win.

Agreed......complete waste of money that could have kept a lot of boys/girls footy clubs afloat for years....if they wanted a new nation they should have made that clear before millions was wasted.
I have given up even caring about International football.

I imagine leaving FIFA would have so many 'domino-esque' consequences it would ultimately destroy our game.

However, I love the idea of telling FIFA to do one :)

Give football back to the people... REVOLUTION!

The IOC is bent, don't recall anyone saying the IOC is bent after we got the olympics ...  or that we must've bribed them.

Sour grapes for a wanky bid.

I questioned it. So there.

I'd prefer the option of the media over here (and the fans for that matter), ignoring the World Cup.

If I recall correctly the major European nations pay FIFA massivley more in TV rights than the rest of the world. If we could collectively tell them to Fuck Off, it would put a serious dent in the retirement fund of Mr Blatter & his cronies.

That's probably the only way to shake them up, hit them in the pocket, unless you can somehow get absolute proof that they are all on the take.

Ah, people are becoming more-and-more sniffy about the World Cup now many consider the Champions League the 'pinnacle' of football.

Not sure about the Champions League, but I do reckon the European Championships is a better tournament than the World Cup. Better matches, better football, better quality of teams plus we don't have the time zone shit to put up with. It's the main reasons why I think us (or UEFA) pulling out of FIFA until they sort their shit out wouldn't be a problem - we've got the best tournament and they need us (UEFA) more than we need them.

The World Cup this year was lost in it's own importance... So much so that they forgot to fill the bloody stadiums.

I don't think Willy Windsor will have been too chuffed being patted on the head and given a fuck you certificate from the Chief Cunt Blatter. He'd better be fucking careful next time he's being driven thruogh a tunnel in Paris - his card's been marked.

Err, I know (hence the sorry Tans  :)).  And to carry on the pedantry the USSR wasn't Russia (sorry again, Tans!)

I notice the acting FA Chairman, who was previously standing to take the job full time, has now said he doesn't want the job as he wants nothing more to do with FIFA. Interesting, if not particularly important.

not really important

Adds to our wonderful sulk :)

During a more interesting post which I'm in the middle of now, I've decided to defend the BBC a bit.

I don't think that much of the Panorama programme was particularly new, or that's what I've been told anyway. Still, it bought forward a lot of Fifa's dodgy dealings in a nice understandable package in a short telly programme.

Should they not have done that? Or is it that they should not have done that when it might have embarrassed fifa so close to our bid for the world cup?

It's easy to slag it off on here, a lot of us our well versed on fifa corruption and have read it all before. We're the minority.

I applaud the BBC for timing the panorama show close before the bid decisions were made. Not because it might have scared fifa in or out of our bid, but because it's important that people know how corrupt fifa are. They have more chance of getting that across when more people are watching, and the world cup bid is good timing.

The same people who are following the murdoch blame the bbc line are the same people who would have no idea about the corrupt dealings of Fifa if it wasn't for the BBc.

Long fucking live the licence fee

It makes me proud to see our media showing this shit just before the vote, good on them I say. Don't bow to these dodgy money grabbing fuckers and carry on with the freedom to show what you want when you want to. Murdoch can go fuck himself, he only wanted the world cup here so he could make more money.

Fuck me though, Qatar!!

"Faceless blazer quits in strop". That'll show 'em - Blatter must have woken up sweating this morning, crying out "What have I done? What have I done?"

I reckon we should have sent HRH Andrew to front the presentation - not the boy Willie Windsor.  If the Wilkileaks pages are to believe he's the royal that knows how to talk turkey to 'Johnny Foreigner'.

As for the FA Chairman not wanting to work with Herr Blatter - don't then. Simples!

Given his resignation, I'd suggest that's the decision he came to...

There's talk that FIFA want the World Cup to be held in Qatar in January.

That'll go down well in Europe.

Yeah, we throw enough hissy fits about the Africa Cup of Nations as it is!

Did we really want that nonsense here anyway, I for one couldn't give a toss about it, the only good thing would be that as hosts the bunch of cunts we call the national side wouldn't have had to qualify, saves any embarrassment. International football, yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwn

Speak of the devil http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11918769

Amen.

When i went to Russia i had to get a visa and all that, a costly piece of nonesense to make money!

What with the no-mark blazer flouncing out and now this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11921692

we're in danger of just coming across as a bit childish and petulant. The offer shouldn't have been made in the first place IMO but to withdraw it now is just laughably petulant

Correct..and lets not forget that when our squad gets to Russia...they will have long memories.
It would be wise to be as pleasant as possible now the deed has been done.

That's a very good point leefer. The Russians are like the Irish when it comes to letting bygones be bygones.

The latest musings from the world of the FIFA President......


Sepp Blatter denies corruption at Fifa, and brands England 'bad losers'

• Fifa's president criticises English reaction to 2018 defeat

• 'There is no systematic corruption in Fifa. That is nonsense'

President Sepp Blatter has rejected allegations of corruption at football's governing body after Russia and Qatar won the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and called England "bad losers" for their reaction.

"To be honest, I was surprised by all the English complaining after the defeat. England, of all people, the motherland of fairplay ideas," Blatter told Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche.

"Now some of them are showing themselves to be bad losers. You can't come afterwards and say so and so promised to vote for England. The results are known. The outcome came out clearly."

Roger Burden, acting chairman of the Football Association, withdrew his application for the permanent position last week, saying he could no longer trust Fifa members after the failure of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

He added that England's bid team in Zurich, which included Prime Minister David Cameron and the second in line to the throne, Prince William, were promised votes which had not been delivered by Fifa executive committee members.

Blatter said the reaction of the losing bidders showed some did not understand his drive to expand soccer's frontiers.

"I really sense in some reactions a bit of the arrogance of the western world of Christian background. Some simply can't bear it if others get a chance for a change.

"What can be wrong if we start football in regions where this sport demonstrates a potential which goes far beyond sport?" he said.

England's bid leader Andy Anson has suggested Blatter influenced committee members before the vote by reminding them of British media stories which alleged corruption against them and led to two being banned.

Blatter rejected the corruption allegations and said he was being targeted by anti-Fifa journalists: "There is no systematic corruption in Fifa. That is nonsense. We are financially clean and clear."

But Blatter said Fifa could not act as if nothing had happened, adding he wanted to set up a taskforce to look into compliance issues, without giving details.

"We need to improve our image. We also need to clarify some things within Fifa."

What a cunt.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

We are bad losers, absolutely.

It doesn't make the decision, or Blatter's continued existence, right.

As a nation we are bad losers, always have been and always will be. Don't forget how many times have we been knocked out of tournaments fairly - its always the refs fault.
I don't particularly have problems if FIFA want to take the tournament to new areas - but fucking tell people in advance thats what you want to do you dopy cunt.
I also think they may well move the 2022 tournament in Qatar. FIFA say their international diary is only solid until 2015 and if Qatar ask for it to be moved, they will listen. I can understand Russia but Qatar is an absolute farce.

Blatter is a lying cunt.

If these allegations are lies...take legal action. But no-one at FIFA have never taken legal action as they know that the allegations are the truth.

woah, bizarre, talk about opening a can of worms

thing is, he can say whatever he likes. what would it take to remove sepp blatter from his position of ultimate power? some kind of nuclear threat maybe

About a million in fresh crisp twenties would do it....Euros of course.

He'll take Swiss Francs as well...

The FA have decided to abstain in the forthcoming FIFA President vote.

A case of none of the above.Nice to see that the Premier League representatives, had a different
take on things! 39th game Mr Scudamore?


The Football Association's board has decided to abstain in the vote for the presidency of Fifa, citing "a well-reported range of issues".

The decision to support neither Sepp Blatter nor his Qatari challenger Mohamed bin Hammam in the vote on 1 June had been expected following the recent allegations of bribery surrounding Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup. Bin Hammam, central to the Qatar bid, denies any wrongdoing.

The FA chairman David Bernstein said: "There are a well-reported range of issues both recent and current which, in the view of the FA board, make it difficult to support either candidate.

"The FA values its relationships with its international football partners extremely highly. We are determined to play an active and influential role through our representation within both Uefa and Fifa.

"We will continue to work hard to bring about any changes we think would benefit all of international football."

Bernstein had previously admitted that "it wouldn't go down very well" with the public if the FA board decided to vote for the 75-year-old Blatter.

He said: "We will look at the recent events and take that on board. There are two candidates and three possible decisions, the other being that we will abstain."

One of the board members from the amateur game is Roger Burden, who withdrew his application to become FA chairman after the World Cup vote in December, saying he would have to work with Fifa and "I am not prepared to deal with people whom I cannot trust".

The Premier League members may have argued in favour of Bin Hammam – they have developed close links with the head of the Asian confederation – but evidently did not win a majority.