Russia and Qatar - good choices?
I think not. Rampant corruption I think.
Sepp Blatter O U T !
10 Answers
I don't think whether Russia and Qatar are the best choices, but I support the expansion of football/ soccer throughout the world. That's why I think that the selection is appropriate. This will be the first time an Eastern Europe country and an Arab / Middle East country have been chosen to hold World Cup. And that's the reason people in this world should be proud of that. Russia is the largest country and Qatar is the smallest country among the host countries of World Cup.
Will a country in the Caribbean or Central America be selected in future? Perhaps. But I really hope World Cup 2030 will be held in Uruguay/ Argentina. 100 years!!!
To be honest, I wasn't exactly rooting for the Spanish/Portuguese bid; I was a bit indifferent. After all, we organized the World Cup as recently as '82. However, I think Russia and Qatar will be piss-poor choices, because as Ian says, they only chose them for the money, they couldn't have cared less for the merits of their bids.
Sincerely I don't think that Russia was a good choice for the World Cup: there's rampant corruption, long distances between venues, big stadiums to build that will probably go unused after the event.. Security will probably be a great concern too.
And Qatar? I mean, come on.. the only reason I know that Qatar has a football league is because some European players spend the last years of their careers there to get some easy money. It is one thing to help promote economic growth in developing countries -like they did with South Africa- in spite of their lackluster football tradition, but a wealthy nation like Qatar that has never even qualified for the World Cup? That's just lame.
The AFC Asian Cup 2011, held in Qatar, is going to start on Jan 1, 2011. Australia will be the next host country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_AFC_Asian_Cup
In answer to Seb.
Russia may be a good choice.
But Holland deserved it more.
Spain had it quite recently.
AS for England we should not have highlighted the corruption in F I F A. We should refuse to bid again until F I F A is re-organised,
As for Qatar that is a joke. (all about money)
Also why is the World Cup venue decided up to 12 years in advance?
The olympics are only announced 6 years in advance.
Well,
No, I was very sad when I saw the two choices today !
This is when it's good to be an American, because I can say, "What are we talking about?"
I don't even follow the sport but these two choices seem bizarre to me.
England got just 2 votes from 22 = the worst bid. Come on!!
The choice of Russia and Qatar means there is no point in bidding if the decision is based on"how to spread the interest in football" and give the bidders time to build the stadiums etc. 8 and 12 years.
What next?
Blatter said football was "invented in China" that is news to me.
At least the next time is a long way off.
PS South Africa and Brazil were good choices.
Yes, I am sad too, I thought Belgium/Holland would have been good but I don't know - I guess they are trying to appeal to a wider world audience or ???? 
Where would you rather ian-hill?
