ES Soccer Thread

[Old Bay]

Well...that sucks.

[Kilmer17]

The US should organize a seperate tournament for 2022. Invite the worlds best 32 teams and tell Fifa to suck our collective ****.

[heyholetsgogrant]

**** fifa.

I was talking with a soccer fanatic in class yesterday, we all knew Qatar was going to get it. This whole thing is about money. ****ING Qatar, you have to be kidding right??? a country with the population of 1.5 million and no soccer heritage? Clearly this was about money and 10 outdoor air conditioned stadiums (if that is even possible).

Edited December 2, 2010 by heyholetsgogrant

[Thanos]

The English press killed off their chances.Also the return of the Yobs at the Birmingham /Aston Villa match didn't help much.

I'm here in the Middle East and let me tell you Qatar's bid tv blitz is very impressive.Also I think they are boosting that all match venues are within an hour of each other.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Absurd. Totally absurd

There is NOTHING in Qatar

[Kilmer17]

No alcohol allowed.

I hope Ireland makes it. I can see the clashes now.

[Always A Commander Never A Captain]

...is it possible to do an investigation into FIFA? I'm serious, we need a new organizational body if this is the **** they pull.

[fullnelson9999]

Something tells me that Qatar won't be able to pull this off. We may have to step in and take over like Mexico did when Colombia couldn't host.

[SkinsHokieFan]

No alcohol allowed.

I hope Ireland makes it. I can see the clashes now.

There is NOTHING in Qatar

I may actually go because I have an uncle setting up a cable network there and would get good seats. Other then that, this will be a worthless fan experience.

110 degrees during the day

---------- Post added December-2nd-2010 at 11:03 AM ----------

Something tells me that Qatar won't be able to pull this off. We may have to step in and take over like Mexico did when Colombia couldn't host.

They have plenty of oil money to build the infrastructure. That won't be a problem.

It will just be no fun for the fans that show up

[FrFan]

Another evidence Blatter is corrupted to the bones. Qatari soccer league = soccer players cemetery, the best record of their national team 1/4 finalist of the 2000 asian cup !!!

Someone please give Zidane a headbutt.

Edited December 2, 2010 by FrFan

[Forehead]

Is Qatar a relatively safe country to visit? I mean hell, in 12 years I might be able to afford to go. Then I can say "Hey...I'm in Qatar....yeah"

[sjinhan]

Qatar is an interesting location...

See their actualy WC presentation.

Gjt7rv3fmwk

http://www.youtube.com/user/MalaysiaQatar#p/u/2/Gjt7rv3fmwk

They already have funding in place and if they can deliver then the WC in Qatar actually might be one of the more memorable WCs. They are saying basically ALL of the stadium will be about 1-2 hours of travel from each other. you can book a room from a single hotel for the entire event.

Anyways... its obvious that FIFA is corrupted... Its not like the win by Russia and Qatar is validating this.. Even if England and USA won you know FIFA's voting officials took alot of money or something else under the table for these decision...

Edited December 2, 2010 by sjinhan

[BeachSkin]

Qatar is claiming they will have climate-controlled stadiums for the World Cup. On the plus side, if they are willing to give a World Cup to a team with a national team that is that brutal, then maybe Canada has a shot at hosting some day. Oh, and anyone making the Qatar trip have fun drinking diet soda in the stands

Edited December 2, 2010 by BeachSkin

[sjinhan]

Is Qatar a relatively safe country to visit? I mean hell, in 12 years I might be able to afford to go. Then I can say "Hey...I'm in Qatar....yeah"

yeah it is.. I am actually going to plan to go this.. like you said I might actually have enough money to go in 2022...

---------- Post added December-2nd-2010 at 12:20 PM ----------

Qatar is claiming they will have climate-controlled stadiums for the World Cup. On the plus side, if they are willing to give a World Cup to a team with a national team that is that brutal, then maybe Canada has a shot at hosting some day.

haha yeah well they did give it to South Africa and their team is brutal as well...

Canada has the same problem that USA, Russia and Australia has... the event will be too spread out.. I am against that. Next time we need to put a USA bid together that will concentrate the games to one region.

[ixcuincle]

Very angry and irate

Going to relieve anger by getting drunk at 11:26 AM EST

[ACW]

Russia? Maybe WE should've been one by a corrupt piece of **** and then WE would've won

---------- Post added December-2nd-2010 at 11:39 AM ----------

The English press killed off their chances.Also the return of the Yobs at the Birmingham /Aston Villa match didn't help much.

What happened in the press, and who the **** are "Yobs"?

EDIT: That "Post added feature" is cool. Apaprently if you do two posts in a row it merges them.

Edited December 2, 2010 by ACW

[boysetsfire]

My g/f told me that Bladder wants the Nobel Peace Prize and that motivates alot of his actions and decision making. I wasn't paying attention but they were talking about it on Fox Soccer Channel.

[sjinhan]

oM0Je0MLVI0

Qatar's proposed new stadiums

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

the only bad thing I can think of when seeing the design of those stadiums involve how easy it will be for terrorists to arrive by boat :paranoid:

[Thanos]

Lets be honest ,it good that other regions of the world host this. I've been to Qatar twice.Trust me you can have a good time if you look hard enough. Qatar has a night Motogp race and check out Abu Dhabi F1 facility.

I just pray that by 2022 the world will a better place, and Danny Boy has sold the Skins and we've made the playoffs once or twice

[ixcuincle]

Reliable source

2. Qatar? Really? It would have been one thing if the U.S. had lost out to Australia, a country that has put on big-time sporting events with panache and has never hosted a World Cup. But Qatar is a huge risk for FIFA and suggests that it's possible to buy the World Cup. FIFA's own inspection team visited Qatar and was concerned that the 110-degree summer heat would put the health of players and fans at risk, even if Qatar says it will build air-conditioned stadiums and training grounds. What's more, 12 years is a long time away, and you never know what might happen in world politics between now and then. Choosing a safer bet like the U.S. or Australia would have been the logical thing to do, but as we know, FIFA doesn't always use logic in its decisions. If anything, the outcry over these choices will be the biggest incentive for FIFA to finally clean up its act.

Edited December 2, 2010 by ixcuincle

[NavyDave]

You shouldn't have. There is much more walking in soccer than in Lacrosse. She would get a chance to catch her breath

Soccer is a great place to work on your acting skills since flopping can transfer over to being a shooting victim in the next Bruce Willis or The Rock action film.

Edited December 2, 2010 by NavyDave

[ACW]

Russia? Maybe WE should've been one by a corrupt piece of **** and then WE would've won

---------- Post added December-2nd-2010 at 11:39 AM ----------

What happened in the press, and who the **** are "Yobs"?

:feedback:

[sjinhan]

If what this dude said is true then yeah the USA bid committee did a poor job... Seemed like they were too over confident.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5872089/us-world-cup-bid-swings-misses

The reasons the U.S. failed to land the 2022 World Cup -- and Qatar succeeded -- will be endless fodder for conjecture. But a glimpse of the likely argument against the U.S. was on display on a grainy Web feed out of Zurich on Wednesday morning. With its approach of offering itself up as the practical pick, rather than the emotional one, the U.S. swung and missed.

The presentation process is widely believed to be an inconsequential beauty pageant, demonstrating more a country's PR savvy than its actual preparedness and ability to host a World Cup. But while it won't put anybody over the top, or doom a campaign, it does offer a microcosm of the state of the race. In 30-odd minutes, each bid's grand plea laid out an easily digestable pros and cons list of its respective campaigns.

The big knock on the U.S. bid, according to a report filed by FIFA's inspectors who briefly toured the country in September, was a lack of government guarantees. FIFA is accustomed to getting the combination to the vault when it awards a country a World Cup. It makes far-reaching demands and takes financial and fiscal liberties. The bid evaluators weren't convinced they would get all of that in the U.S.

And so the U.S. tried to convince FIFA otherwise. "We have a government that stands behind us at the local, state and federal level," said U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati. To further buttress that argument, the U.S. presentation included a recorded message by President Barack Obama, beamed onto the projection screen, which, while effective in showing government support, didn't mention the sought-after guarantees. Then, weirdly, it also pointed out that Attorney General Eric Holder would be on hand and available to answer questions on the government's good will.

Not surprisingly, several of the other bids pointed out that this wasn't an issue for their bid.

"Korea has no trouble with FIFA policy," the South Korean bid quickly slipped in between two grandiose statements about welcoming the world and the power of soccer in the divided peninsula.

"Our government has wholeheartedly supported this bid from day one," Qatar declared.

Qatar, in turn, addressed its own major demerit: soccer in 120-degree heat. Time and again, the organizers said they could keep stadiums cool with air conditioners, and that the conditions would be ideal.

Japan, probably the biggest outsider, threw the longest Hail Mary, suggesting it would beam the games into stadiums all around the world in 3D, digitally replicating the games live in the foreign stadiums. But here its presentation dug to the crux of it in like fashion. That its bid has been relegated to fantasy was most evident by its bizarre clip on the dreams of Japan's children and the "smiles" it promised to "deliver to 208 countries."

Australia, just like every other country that's not the U.S., tried to pander to a sense of greater purpose, rather than present a cogent argument about the merits of its bid. It showed off its landscapes, raved about the tournament's potential as "nation-changing" and to "turbo-charge the growth of football in the Asian and Pacific rims." It, too, pointed out that "the Australian government has issued every guarantee has sought without ammendments or variations," in another implicit swipe at the U.S. bid.

In comparison to its competitors, the U.S. presentation, touching on the usual inane fare about being multicultural and professing how much the country loves the game, looked timid and was marred by gaffes. Morgan Freeman accidentally skipped a page of his speech and interrupted himself to correct it; several people misspoke and all speeches but Freeman's were flat and uninspired -- most notably former President Bill Clinton's meandering talk about many things other than the World Cup, including his foundation's work. Then there was the ill-advised spell when the slouching Gulati nixed the dais embraced by everybody else and paced around, giving his speech through a hand-held microphone.

But regardless of its flaws, the presentation, as indeed did the entire bid campaign, focused on the U.S. as a practical, flexible (18 World Cup-ready cities to choose from!) and profitable choice. It was eminently clear that the U.S. had chosen to appeal to the bean counters, rather than those voting from the heart. Many of the talking points revolved around the record number of tickets sold when the U.S. held the '94 World Cup -- while steering clear of having hosted so recently, the second-biggest strike against the 2022 bid. Then the U.S. tried to induce salivation by hyping the potential riches flowing forth from sponsorship and broadcast rights, while pointing out that the necessary stadiums, airports, train links and hotels exist and are operational.

click on the link for rest...

---------- Post added December-2nd-2010 at 01:15 PM ----------

Reliable source

well its being reported that USA strongest argument to host the World Cup was that it was very "practical". USA can probably even hold the WC right away from a short notice since we already have the infastructure...

If there is a problem with Qatar some 10 years down the road, I am sure USA will be one of the front runner to host the event on an emergency. The reasoning by the guy you quoted is kind of like what the USA bid team used. Not a good strategy.

[NavyDave]

Hurray!! FIFA saves 99% of the US from being flooded with boring advertisement as well as both fans from being shot by neighbors for blowing the friggin Vuvuzela after a nil nil preliminary game

Edited December 2, 2010 by NavyDave