^ Disgusting. This WC should never happen.

Good news. 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/05/2022-world-cup-qatar-under-threat-saudi-arabia-blockade-fifa-football

 

Hopefully in the near future we get an announcement of the cancellation of the 2022 finals in Qatar. 

Yes just been reading on the alternative news fronts everyone seems to be distancing themselves from Qatar........................  

Shouldn't be happening in the first place. Says all you need to know that Qatar Airways is the official airline of FIFA

It's interesting now that Blatter has gone, whether Qatar will be kicked into touch along with the deal with Qatar airlines.

Just over a year later, and it looks like Qatar are still happening.

Of course, they paid too much money to FIFA officials for it to not happen.

 

There is a problem with Qatar just now, they have fallen out with Saudi Arabia. It is too the extent that Saudi have stopped trade with them. 

World Cup: Fifa drops plans to expand Qatar 2022 to 48 teams - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48373886

From The Telegraph:

Michel Platini, the former Uefa president, has been arrested over the controversial vote which handed the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. The former France captain, who was part of the Fifa tournament organising committee, was taken into custody by French officers as part of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Office of the Judicial Police (OCLCIFF).

The arrest comes five years after the Daily Telegraphdisclosed how Platini, 63, held meetings with the disgraced former Asian football official Mohammed Bin Hammam before the vote.

Platini was head of European football from January 2007, when he replaced the late Lennart Johansson, but stepped down in 2015 after being banned from football for six years, which was later reduced to four after appealing the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The Frenchman was arrested on Tuesday morning in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris, according to French investigative outlet Mediapart. His ban by a Fifa ethics committee  expired in March this year, but investigators leading the fight against corruption are examining how Qatar won the right to host the next World Cup.

Qatar was controversially awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup over competing nations South Korea, America, Australia and Japan in 2010. It was announced as host at the same time as Russia won the right to stage the 2018 tournament.

Platini was on previously part of the Fifa World Cup organising committee. He also joined the Fifa executive committee in 2002 until he received his ban. In 2014, it emerged Platini admitted holding a meeting in secret with Bin Hammam days before casting his vote for Qatar. The ex-Asian Football Confederation president was subsequently banned from football for life following an investigation by the Sunday Times.

A source close to Platini said at the time that he had met the Qatar football official for breakfast in a hotel in Switzerland, adding that the two men had previously met 30 to 50 times, as both sat on the decision-making committee for Fifa. However, the source insisted that Mr Platini had not met with the heads of states of countries vying to host the 2018 or the 2022 World Cups. President Putin invited Platini to a meeting, but Platini turned it down.

In a letter to the Telegraph, Platini said that he found it "astonishing" that "conversations with a fellow member of the Fifa Executive Committee could suddenly be transformed into a matter of state."

"I have obviously met with Mr. Mohamed Bin Hammam on many occasions in 2010 as we were both members of the same Fifa Executive Committee since 2002,"  Platini told the Telegraph. "During those conversations with Mr. Bin Hammam, the topic of the discussions was my potential candidature for the Fifa Presidency. Mr. Bin Hammam was indeed trying to convince me to become a candidate for the 2011 Fifa Presidential elections."

The year after the vote, the state-owned Qatar Sports Investments bought Paris Saint-Germain. Platini’s son Laurent became the chief executive of Burrda, a Qatar owned sports company. Platini has always said that his son’s role was unconnected to his vote.

Qatar has previously insisted Bin Hammam was not involved in its bid and denies all allegations of wrong-doing. Platini had previously called for the vote on where to hold the 2022 World Cup to be rerun if corruption is found.

The Telegraph also revealed that Jack Warner, a former member of Fifa’s decision-making body Exco, received $1.6million from Kemco, a Qatari company connected to Bin Hammam. Warner and his family declined to comment when approached by the Telegraph over the alleged payment. He subsequently quit football and, in 2015, was banned for life by Fifa.

Platini had been widely expected to vote for the United States. He confirmed in 2015 that he “might have told” American officials that he would vote for them. However, he appeared to change his mind after a November 2010 meeting, hosted by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy at his official residence in Paris and Qatar’s crown prince, now Emir, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani.

He has subsequently denied claims that his vote for Qatar was at the request of Sarkozy.  “Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” he said.

France’s financial prosecutor services opened the investigation on grounds of private corruption, criminal association, influence peddling and benefiting from influence peddling  to the two World Cups.

The multi-million pound investigation into potential corruption at FIfa has already questioned former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who has blamed Platini for backing out of a secret “gentleman’s agreement” to award the 2022 tournament to the United States. Platini's spokesman did not respond to an approach for comment from the Associated Press.

Uefa has been contacted for comment.

It may well be too late (but you never know) to arrange an alternate venue for the 2022 World Cup, and knowing FIFA and UEFA there is no way in this world that they will consider cancelling the event. But even so, it is to be hoped that they (whoever they may be) throw the book at the Anglophobic bent bastard and others of his ilk.

Hanging's too good for 'em.

Qatar world cup might just be one of the worst things to have ever happened to football. 

The whole thing has been a massive disgrace. 

Surely nothing comes of this. I'd love to see it completely collapse on them but rich people in football don't get punished. 

The deeper story is that of the Qatari Royal family bribing a French president into getting them a world cup by offering to buy French goods and equipment. 

 

"Let me tell you a tale,” my friend said, “a tale in the Oriental style.”

This friend will remain anonymous, for two reasons: firstly, while he won’t mind my re-telling the tale in question he would probably prefer not to see his own name in print; secondly, his name wouldn’t mean much to most readers anyway. This friend could adopt Descartes’s larvatus prodeo [masked, I proceed] as his motto, as the path he’s followed in football, which took him to very high places indeed, remains largely uncharted. He wouldn’t have it any other way. 

This conversation took place at his (unmarked, unlisted) London office, six weeks before Fifa chose Russia and Qatar to be the respective hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. To say that these decisions came as a surprise to my interlocutor would be a wild exaggeration, as, that afternoon, after fielding calls from Sepp Blatter and Mohammed Bin Hammam, he assured me that the Russians would walk it, that England would be lucky to get more than a solitary vote and that it was touch and go for the Qataris to bag the prize in the first round. I passed on the information to my contacts at England 2018, who clearly thought that my source had offered me something stronger than espresso at our meeting. We all know what happened in the end. But let’s go back to the tale itself.

“Once, there was a French president whom we shall call Nicolas. He didn’t have much money. In fact, he was desperate for some but, thankfully, his good friend the emir had plenty of it. The emir told him that he’d buy all sorts of things from France, expensive things like planes and nuclear power stations and Nicolas was very happy. But then the emir said, ‘There’s one condition, though, just a little thing.’

“‘What could it be?’ Nicolas asked.

“‘Just tell Michel to give us the World Cup,’ the emir replied.

“Nicolas didn’t have much of a choice. He needed the money. So he asked Michel to do what he was told, and Michel said he’d do it.”

https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/article/qatar-hero

Edited June 18, 20197 yr by dkw

Remember watching announcement of Russia and Quatar being chosen as World Cup venues in a Wimbledon pub ( it was in between Xmas and New Year )

The choices stunk the place out- general consensus then and now was that FIFA was a gangster organisation doling out prizes to gangster states. 

Hope one day Blatter, the odious Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer and Platini all end up doing time but I wouldn’t bank on it.

I don't know how they managed to do it but UEFA and FIFA somehow managed to plunge to new found depths of corruption for the sake of hosting a World Cup in a country that doesn't even like football that much. 

They more details and stories that leak out about the what led up to Qatar being award the competition are astonishing. But sadly, it won't change a thing. 

23 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I don't know how they managed to do it but UEFA and FIFA somehow managed to plunge to new found depths of corruption for the sake of hosting a World Cup in a country that doesn't even like football that much. 

They more details and stories that leak out about the what led up to Qatar being award the competition are astonishing. But sadly, it won't change a thing. 

Its absolutely sickening isnt it, I saw an image of a list of the higher uppers in FIFA and every single one is under investigation for corruption of some sort.

 

I'm planning to boycott this World Cup.

A shame as I love the competition, but I can't watch it knowing what we know about the circumstances of how Qatar won the bid and the corruption that surrounds it.

See you in 2026! ?

Edited June 21, 20197 yr by Jezz

On 21/06/2019 at 14:34, Jezz said:

I'm planning to boycott this World Cup.

A shame as I love the competition, but I can't watch it knowing what we know about the circumstances of how Qatar won the bid and the corruption that surrounds it.

See you in 2026! ?

Not to mention the death toll of workers building the stadiums. 

The way South Africa, Russia and Qatar got to host the World Cup is full of controversy, to top if off USA got super triggered when Russia got to host it so only then they decided to send their agents and investigate, only to secure themselves hosting the World Cup as well. At least Mexico and Canada will also be hosts but the point is, whoever the host has been it wasn't done by a clean deal.

Since it is supposed to be held in the winter because of weather conditions. I would love for all the clubs and players to simply not attend this tournament and concentrate on their clubs seasons. Now that would be a disaster that FIFA deserves.

The circus with FIFA continues.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11778579/franz-beckenbauer-accused-of-fraud-and-four-others-charged-by-swiss-attorney-in-fifa-case

On 19/06/2019 at 17:21, Ewell CFC said:

Remember watching announcement of Russia and Quatar being chosen as World Cup venues in a Wimbledon pub ( it was in between Xmas and New Year )

The choices stunk the place out- general consensus then and now was that FIFA was a gangster organisation doling out prizes to gangster states. 

Hope one day Blatter, the odious Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer and Platini all end up doing time but I wouldn’t bank on it.

I don't think Russia would have been the best choice objectively for 2010 (that would probably be ENG), but you could at least see it being a viable option. Russia were a large, improving country with a reasonable footballing tradition and infrastructure.

Qatar on the other hand? I couldn't think of many countries less suitable for holding a World Cup. Summer weather there is hellish, moving it to winter would disrupt football schedules around the world, they lack a strong footballing pedigree and the infrastructure was lacking. Hell, even the likes of Saudi Arabia would have been better, and I hate that country with a passion. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50169337

Premier League players could face the prospect of playing games nine days before the start of the 2022 winter World Cup in Qatar.

Draft plans have been shared between clubs outlining the Premier League schedule around the tournament, being held from 21 November to 18 December.

Fixtures could take place on 12 November and resume on 26 December, eight days after the final.

The season would also kick off one week earlier and finish a week later.

It means that there would be only six weekends without Premier League games.

The issue will be discussed at the next Premier League shareholders' meeting in November.

It is understood that Championship games will not take place during the World Cup, but the break for the second tier might not be as long as in the Premier League.

Leagues One and Two will continue during the tournament.

Any such proposals would clash with national associations' plans, given they usually allow several weeks for their players to prepare for the tournament.

A winter break will be introduced to the Premier League for the first time this season in order to give players a rest.

But it has been suggested that will be scrapped in the 2022-23 season, raising questions about player fatigue.

Uefa has said a decision on the scheduling of that season's Champions League and Europa League will not be made until 2021.

Russia in 'bent as a nine bob note' shock:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/50710598