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World Cup William or why WikiLeaks Weakens Bad Blatter

The day after WikLeaks confirms the fact that Russia is so corrupt that it is impossible to separate the State from Organized Crime, the FIFA executive awards the criminal state the right to hold the World Cup in 2018. At the same time it gives the right to hold the 2022 Cup to Qatar- a state which has temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius in the Summer months, when the tournament is played.

Frankly It seems to me that of all the great countries that could have held the tournament: Spain/Portugal or England in 2018, the US or Australia in 2022, the elderly bureaucrats of FIFA have chosen the worst options.

Why did they do this?

Frankly- they followed the money. Whether or not the individual voters were personally corrupt- and we know that at least some of them were- the process certainly is corrupt.

FIFA shamelessly followed the money.

Frankly, having taken the money, they should now take the consequences.

Choosing Qatar is daft, choosing Russia is sinister. A lot of questions will now be asked, and frankly they should be.

Humiliation for England - even after throwing Prince William into the fray- may have been expected after the poor press that FIFA received in the UK, but that does not mean that FIFA can now expect things to settle down, indeed the scale of the English humiliation might unleash something of shit storm for Sepp Blatter. After all he has had corruption rumours swirling around him for years. After two exceptionally stupid decisions (well three, if you count bringing forward the 2022 decision), he should not be surprised if he comes under a whole lot more scrutiny.

He may yet find he has a case to answer.
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Comments

Piers Fallowcherry said…
As you know, the media in general has a short attention span these days & rarely has the stomach for an in-depth investigation. When you throw in Russia's capacity to juggle both carrots and the most lethal of sticks ... well, it will take a suicidally courageous journalist to even attempt to tackle this one.

Sickening though and it is entirely unhealthy for the likes of FIFA & the IOC to wield so much power over governments and yet have so little responsibility.
12:39 pm
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