Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[UncleUB]

Well tbh I didn't think for one minute we would get it.

Not after the BBC went after Fifa with the Panorama programme about corruption within.......were they right to do so before the vote.I am bitterly disappointed,but think that if these allegations are correct then yes they were correct.

It has already shown with Fifa members already suspended that there is corruption within Fifa,and imo it goes a lot deeper.

[exo]

So FIFA may be corrupt............what a surprise.
The alleged accusations of corruption did not exactly help our cause.
I seem to recall Panorama making similar accusations against Harry Redknapp some time ago but that all fizzled out due to lack of evidence.
I suspect the same will happen again.

The FIFA President, Blatter, had already stated that Russia was his preferred choice and he got his way.
Prior to the vote, he criticised  the media in this country and that was enough to kick our chances into touch..........especially as we failed in the first round.
He probably has too much power and influence but don't hold your breath for any change soon.

exo

[BritBrat]

No reason for our press to hold back now for 10 years or more.

[pintosal]

I'd rather have a free press than a world cup.

You've only got to look at how many journalists have been killed and beaten up in Russia - so there's the connection.

According to wikileaks the Russian government gets more corrupt and maffia-like the higher up you get. So the size of the brown envelopes swung it for Putin.

[broadstairs]

I am actually quite glad we have not got it. Although I do feel sorry for all those who put time and effort into it as they were seriously misled by the bunch of cr***s that are FIFA.

[Rant on]I have never been and never will be  a fan of footie perhaps it means there will be slightly less prime time TV given over to it.  It a farce anyway  football (and the premiership in particular) is a money making enterprise with obscene amounts of money paid to people who in general have very little intelligence or real talent if the tabloid press is anything to go by, the majority are the worlds worst role models for our young people. I know it wont change but if footballers were like in Sir Stanley Mathews era who thought it the most important thing in the world was to pay for their country it might be a little different.[Rant off]

Stuart

[pintosal]

I agree with you Stuart.

While the likes of Stanley Matthews and Bobby Moore were decent role models, I wouldn't want any of my offspring to behave like today's footballers.

What have we actually lost by not hosting the world cup?

- 99% of us watch football on TV, so the cameras will be in Russia. The remaining 1% can go to a stadium in Russia instead of White Hart Lane; it will cost them the same.
- The costs of security and policing will fall to Russia.
- The Wembley 'turf' won't need replacing so often

...

All in all, no great loss.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Personally I'm not too disappointed as having no interest in football and moreover not being English, I'm not part of the 'We' or 'Us' that have been discussed.

All the same, if I had been the least bit interested, I'd have questioned the wisdom of having the effort spearheaded by a prime minister who wasn't properly elected, a 'royal celebrity', and an (arguably) overpaid  ex-footballer.   Out of these three, a fair percentage of people world-wide may perhaps loathe at least one of them.

Nevertheless, of these three individuals, it will have done their careers in politics/media/overpaid ex-footballers no harm at all as they have somebody else to blame for failure.  Yet they were seen on TV a lot and so they and their advisors may well regard last week as an outstanding success.

Completely unprejudiced of course - as I confess, not being English, I'm barely entitled to an opinion  .