NO WORLD CUP FOR ENGLAND.
Yesterday, in Zurich, the 22 members of the F.I.F.A. Executive committee had no hesitation in rejecting England`s bid for the 2018 World Cup. Only one member other than England voted for our bid and the prize went to Russia.
The English bid was considered to be the best from a technical and financial point of view, financial meaning F.I.F.A. and not the individual committee members. The bid was exceptionally well presented by a very strong team led by The Prime Minister, Prince William and David Beckam, so where did we go wrong?
Some critics are blaming the corruption allegations made on British television for upsetting the members and think the B.B.C. should have suppressed their programme until after the vote. Would this not have been seen as collusion by those of us who are fed up with " Special Interests " controlling our lives and telling us only what they think we should hear. We have a great history in this country of free speech and also a tradition of fearless investigative journalists who, although they can be a pain at times, do keep people " honest ".
F.I.F.A. have admitted that there has been corruption among some members of the committee but claim that they have dealt with it! So let us look at the successful bids;
RUSSIA, represented in Zurich by a multi billionaire oligarch amongst others, will have to build virtually everything from scratch. Roads, railway stations, airports and Football Stadia. The costs will be enormous and so will the bribes which are an everyday thing for anyone who has worked there or even visited the place. Recent claims that it is difficult to distinguish between the Russian Mafia and the Russian Government have only been mildly denied by the Russia Government or was that the Mafia? The world already has enough Russian billionaires but I think we will see several new millionaires on the streets of Zurich over the next eight years.
QATAR, the winner for 2022 is a lovely, friendly country but it is run, or rather owned, by mainly one family and they are as rich as Arab Sheiks. Wait a minute they are Arab Sheiks and they have virtually unlimited wealth to dispose of as they wish. Their World Cup will, I am quite sure, be a fabulous event.
Are we not seeing a trend? If you have a huge amount of money, no-one looking over your shoulder and total control over your media then get your bid in now, World Cup or whatever, just don`t upset the honest,virtuous, secretive people on any of the committees with talk of corruption.
