Qatar 2022

[Eboue-Why?]

And of course it'll pave the way for a winter break every season

[QuartzGooner]

Heat?

Whilst I am keen to see the tournament move to different parts of the world, a relief that it is now moved to winter.
Hottest I have been in was 46 degrees Celsius in Israel, and I can tell you no matter how fit the players are, there would be a chance one of them would die on the pitch, it is quite an extraordinary feeling to be in that heat.

Politics?

If Israel qualify Qatar will have to bend the rules, and there might be Jewish players for other countries too. It is possible Israel will sit it out on security advice.
There is no guarantee the Iranians would go there either if they qualify, no love lost between them.

No guarantee Qatar will exist as a country in 2022.
The Saudis came close to invading it and annexing it 18 months ago if certain reports are to be believed. The Saudi military could take the peninsula in 48 hours if they wanted, and the Americans would not take much persuading to turn a blind eye.

Personally I think they won't re-bid whilst Blatter remains in charge, but one never knows, stranger things have happened.

Every possibility that some Western teams do not go to Russia, that confrontation is hotting up by the week.

Bring it home?

Whatever anyone says about the corruption in English sport, there were not hundreds of deaths building our stadia.
We have a very strong football culture and good stadia, hope we can get it for the 2026 or 2030 World Cups, we deserve it.

[SteveO 35]

If the clubs pull their players out of the tournament, fifa will suspend those clubs so the clubs wont push the envelope that far imo. Tbh the european leagues dont have enough numbers to force a change here in the same way as they dont appear to have enough numbers to oust a supposedly crooked president

At least clubs won't have to worry about pulling Oirish, Scottish and Welsh players out of the tournament - they'll do that for themselves over the course of the qualifying campaign

[northbank123]

It's a complete farce that over 4 years down the line we are now talking about moving it. How could such an arduous and expensive bidding process not consider that it would be 50 degrees in Qatar? Shows what a stitch-up the whole process was.

The only fair way to deal with this would be to re-open the bidding, specifying when Qatar will be holding it. The bids are obviously predicated on the tournament being held in the summer, it's preposterous for them to try and shift that now because everyone knows they'd never have won the bid had this been made clear at the time.

It's a bit of a powder keg really - all it needs is the explicit threat of a boycott, a demand for the re-run of the bidding process or talk of legal action from Australia (for example) to recover their expenditure on a sham bidding process in order to send things into a frenzy and prompt a response from Blatter and others. Most international organisations (like UEFA) seem to be bottling it so it is up to the PL to work in tandem with La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundesliga to collate some strong opposition. Blatter will try and make out that they are overestimating their influence but the reality is they aren't and it will be a case of brinkmanship.

[GranadaJoe]

Its great having a world cup in the middle east but I believe this world cup has to be re-voted for because of 3 reasons;
1) all bids were put in for a summer world cup. If you submit for a summer you can't just move it to the winter. Other middle eastern countries who have a passionate football following may well have put a bid in had they known the tournament could be moved to the winter.
2) they will not leave a legacy in Qatar. Once completed the stadia will be taken down and prospectively moved to developing nations.
3) if Israel qualify they would be banned from the country as Qatar does not allow Jewish nationals in their country. This would contravene FIFA's all inclusive policy and ethics( a term used loosely when associated with FIFA).

How can we ensure Israel qualifies? It would be interesting to watch FIFA / Qatar sort that one out?

[the playing mantis]

i have no issues with it going to russia, even if it was dodgy, and putin is a war monger. russia is probably overdue a world cup, a huge country, with a decnet football pedigree/history and support for the game and should leave something of a legacy.

qatar is wrong on every level. i agree with spreading the game, and even to those countries that have no particular heritage of football. but this is ridiculous. firstly the natives have little to0 interest in football. there will be 0 legacy, they have no players, the country is not conducive to the majority of fans visiting on all levels and the country is too small.

i thought there was a rule on small countries?

i would even back a shared middle east (well in practice its not possible at the mo!) worldcup, split between say UAE, qatar, kuwait, and others maybe)

there are far better candidates not in europe or s america. australia is the obvious one, a chinese one must be on the cards and would tick all the boxes i think, an indian one will probably be in the next 50 years, canada, and north africa/eqypt if the situation ever settles down in the region.

[SteveO 35]

FIFA are such c.unts that if they pulled it from Qatar now they'd probably award it to Syria

[northbank123]

FIFA are such c.unts that if they pulled it from Qatar now they'd probably award it to Syria

Phil Neville thinks it will be the best thing to ever happen to England.

I can only imagine that he somehow thinks that the conditions will be particularly conducive to two-footing anybody who shows any skill or creativity.

[SteveO 35]

FIFA are such c.unts that if they pulled it from Qatar now they'd probably award it to Syria

Phil Neville thinks it will be the best thing to ever happen to England.

I can only imagine that he somehow thinks that the conditions will be particularly conducive to two-footing anybody who shows any skill or creativity.

Albert Steptoe Junior - truly one of the biggest James Hunts to ever play for our country which given that he has competition from Jamie Redcrapp, JT the Racist and Teddy Wanker is quite an achievement

[clockender1]

not that i give a fuck, but England, France, Germany and the US would be out of their fucking minds to send teams and fans to somewhere only two hours by boat from Iran and accessible by land from Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

talk about putting a giant target on your back....

[augie]

not that i give a fuck, but England, France, Germany and the US would be out of their fucking minds to send teams and fans to somewhere only two hours by boat from Iran and accessible by land from Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

talk about putting a giant target on your back....

Maybe in a heated stand off with fifa, the English fa refuse to send their national team to the tournament and instead send the reigning league champion chavs from the bridge as their representatives......not the worst idea in the world surely ?

[OneBardGooner]

The sooner blatta drops dead the better.

Ceeeuunntt.

[clockender1]

not that i give a fuck, but England, France, Germany and the US would be out of their fucking minds to send teams and fans to somewhere only two hours by boat from Iran and accessible by land from Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

talk about putting a giant target on your back....

Maybe in a heated stand off with fifa, the English fa refuse to send their national team to the tournament and instead send the reigning league champion chavs from the bridge as their representatives......not the worst idea in the world surely ?

that idea has potential but they'd have to be ingerlish players Augie - by then, will they have a single one left ? the racist will be crippled by then surely ?

[Herd]

It should never have been awarded to them and it would be good if the European nations simply boycotted it en masse and had their own tournament,South America and Africa would join and we can cut out the deadwood !
FIFA is so corrupt that it's destruction would be a good thing .
Only Iran have the pedigree to stage such a tournament and I bet you they would allow Israel in as they are not the lunatics the west portrays them as !
In 2022 Israel will NOT qualify FIFA can and will fix that just as they have done before !
But at the end who cares !

[Gunner Rob]

if it does go ahead some of the proposed ideas for a longer season are ridiculous.
it is quite simple - for one season get the Champions League back to a straightforward knock out competition and reduce the international breaks during the rest of the season.

with the weekends/midweek slots gained the season will not be any longer than usual. I guess that is too logical for the powers that be though.