2nd December is D-Day

So in three days time, we will know the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. This is the first time that FIFA have decided to announce two consecutive hosts at the same time, and is also the earliest that they have ever assigned the tournament. One of the reasons for this is to give the eventual winners as much time as possible to get ready for the finals. Get the stadiums up to scratch, hotels built and transport sorted. What they don’t want is another situation like they had with South Africa this year, and the one they are facing with Brazil in four years time. One would be excused for suggesting however, that the reason for the double announcement is just a ploy for FIFA to maximise it’s revenues, through one avenue or another.

It was rumoured that the decision date was going to be put back, whilst the FIFA ethics committee investigated claims of bribery and corruption inside footballs governing body regarding the votes. Various members were involved in the claims, with 2 voters and four other FIFA officials all receiving bans, not only for voting, but for working in football in general. All will still go ahead however, on Thursday 2nd December, with 22 voters instead of the original 24.

So where will the two tournaments go then. The process of voting has never quite been a transparent one, with the unexpected often becoming the expected. It would take a brave man to place his own money on predicting where each tournament will take place.

The 2018 tournament then is coming to Europe, with bids from England, Portugal/Spain, Holland/Belgium and Russia. South America’s CONMEBOL federation have already said that they will be giving their votes to Portugal/Spain, giving them a 3 vote head start on the rest with 19 left to count. In my opinion Russia should not get the tournament. Not only do they have logistical issues with it being such a large country, but the attitude of the countries fans is of a particular distaste for other nationalities crossing their border. I know of a fair few incidents when England played them during Euro 2008 qualifying. Recently, black player Peter Odemwingie left Russian side Locomotive for English side West Bromich Albion. Upon leaving the Locomotive fans displayed a banner thanking West Brom for taking Odemwingie off them, with a banana in the middle. A clear display of racism which has no place in football. They have however, never hosted the World Cup, which may end up working in their favour.

I don’t believe Holland and Belgium should get the tournament either, as they hardly put on the best of showings for Euro 2000, or it could be argued of course that that was largely down to England hooliganism. This then leaves Portugal and Spain's joint bid up against the one from England. Both of these have great cases to host a large scale international tournament in my opinion, with the suitable stadiums already in place and efficient transport already running. Maybe because we haven’t had the tournament since 1966 (Spain hosted World Cup 1982) or maybe because I am completely biased, but me personally would like to see the tournament in England.

As for 2022, that is over 11 years away, giving just about anyone enough time to build whatever is needed. I think that USA should take the honors here, as they put on arguably one of the best tournaments in history in 1994, although they face competition from Australia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea. One thing that does bug me though, Mohamed Bin Hammam has recently performed a u-turn and stated that he will now not be running for FIFA presidency next year, when Sepp Blatter stands for re-election. Another four years in office in return for Qatar 2022? Surely not?

The End of the Draw?

Quick question to start things off, what did this years World Cup give you? What memories will you take from it, that will last for many years? Awful refereeing decisions? Big goalkeeping mistakes? Dirty tactics in the Final?

One thing is for sure, it won’t be the wonderful football that was on display because, quite frankly, there was none. A 25 man Technical Study Group came out with a 288 page book report that suggested “nearly all teams now play with a compact defence.” Well congratulations, I could have told you that for free, let alone the absurd amounts that these 25 members most likely earn. The fact of the matter is, is that in International - and some club - football now, the main objective in a match is to not concede. Now I’m not saying this is a bad philosophy, far from it, what I am worried about however is the number of teams who also don’t look to score either. The sort of teams that almost know they are beaten before they enter the field of play, and do all they can to shut the opposition out, with no sense of attacking play whatsoever producing un-entertaining games ending in draws. This cannot be good for the future of the game.

So what does world footballs fearless leader plan to do about all this negativity. “We are considering doing away with draws in the first round (of World Cups) and also ending extra-time play. If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we could proceed directly to penalty kicks.” I forget the writer now, but I once read a column in World Soccer magazine that said “Sepp Blatter comes up with 50 new ideas a day, 51 of them are bad.” A fairly accurate description if you ask me. Other possibilities that the world football governing body has mentioned include increasing the size of the goals and reducing both teams players by one every few minutes during extra time.

There is definitely reason for something to change, because this years World Cup really wasn’t that entertaining to watch, likewise with the 2006 tournament, although I did spend a lot of time travelling to and from Germany for the England games, so maybe didn’t catch enough of that tournament. The ideas being proposed however, are not something that I would like to see. If we do away with draws and go straight to penalty shootouts, then these teams who know they will struggle to get anything from a game, will go even more defensive. The fact that a penalty shootout is an absolute lottery will mean teams playing for that outcome all the more. We shall see what they eventually come up with, but if the past is anything to go by, more than likely nothing and we shall continue as we are.

As ever, sources and quotes taken from World Soccer magazine.