Why Qatar & Russia Won The World Cup

First of all - Congratulations to Russia and Qatar on winning their respective bids to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.

They played FIFA’s game the best.



Hate it or love it, bidding for World Cups and Olympics are a game - just like the dirty game of politics - and with every game there are rules, regulations and a referee. You have to know what people want (usually money or power) and make sure you have that want. You also have to know how far you can bend the rules without breaking them. It also helps to get the referee on your side, or even have one of your own as one of the decision makers.

There are some people blaming our presentation video on why we didn’t get the World Cup. True, it could’ve been better and showed more of our footballing prowess and history. But really, the presentation video is just an act; a theatrical display and almost ceremonial finish to the bid. It is inconsequential. The executive committee members would’ve known who they were voting for before they all got to Zurich a few weeks ago.



For example, in the 2018 voting, the Holland/Belgium bid received 4 votes in round 1 and then only 2 in round 2. If the committee members were voting for what they thought was the best bid in round 1 how can they lose votes? That doesn’t make sense. Possibly, the votes for this bid was propped up in round 1 to keep it in and to help eliminate the best-ranked bid in England.


There are also reports that some countries had “assurances” from voting executive committee members that they would vote for their bid but went back on their word and voted elsewhere. Oh no! They lied! That never happens in politics does it? Have none of these bids watched an episode of Survivor before? The only assurance you get is when that name is read out by Jeff Probst.

I don’t believe for a minute there is this conspiracy against the 3 English-speaking countries. Australia, U.S.A. & England remarkably only got 6 votes between them (12 votes was needed for a successful bid, Australia got 1 and England 2) though had the 3 best assessments of all the World Cup bids. While some of the FIFA executive committee members have said England’s bid was hampered because of their media, I don’t think this would’ve impacted on the other 2 bids. I just think that the other countries played FIFA’s game better even if their bids were more risky.

Jess Fink breaks down Qatar’s successful bid quite well. One of the key plays made by the Qatari bid was that it promised to build demountable stadiums and ship them off to Africa. This helped to sure up the African vote.

More importantly, the Asian Football Confederation president, Mohamed Bin Hammam supported a Qatari World Cup from the outset. With Australia, South Korea and Japan also coming from the Asian confederation, the president’s influence was always going to make sure that Qatar’s bid would face-off against the U.S.A.. After all, he gets a vote too.

Furthermore, Bin Hammam was reportedly threatening to run against current FIFA president Sepp Blatter for the top job in world football if Qatar didn’t host the World Cup. Give Qatar the World Cup and Sepp Blatter gets what he wants, unabated power for a 4th consecutive term as FIFA president.

This is called playing the game, or more importantly, playing FIFA’s game. I’m sure Russia had similar ploys to beat off its rivals’ bids. After all it does have similar sums of money.

Don’t get me wrong, a World Cup in Qatar is going to be awful. It will lack atmosphere, it will not be a celebration of the best football in the world. It will not be a month-long party and festival that it should be. There will be little to see or do outside of football, it will be unbearably hot (40-50° C) if it is hosted in June/July and there will be no one there to fill these vast stadiums up. There will also be severe restrictions on the consumption of alcohol. It will only be hosted in 2 cities. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be awful for fans. This will be shame for the Arab-world. The World Cup deserves to go to this part of the world for the first time and for it to a be a celebration of Arab culture and the Arab people. But not in this way, and not by the bid presented.

But since when has FIFA made decisions for the fans? Not for a while. If it did we’d have goal-line technology by now. It makes decisions for themselves - so they can continue to receive what they want - usually, money and power.

So congratulations again to Russia and Qatar. Well done, you played the game best.

But I won’t see you there in 2018 and 2022. It’s Brazil 2014 or bust. Who’s joining me?