Being housebound yesterday because of the weather I succumbed to watching television during the afternoon and chose Sky News. The verbose performance of FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter, was wretched, so my viewing was spaspodic, yet I was interested - with the indifferent manner of a rugby supporter - in the result.
Why was I interested? For no other reason other than dear friends, who emigrated to Australia some years ago and are ardent football supporters, said they would visit for a lengthy holiday if England won.
This morning one radio in this house was tuned to Talksport as usual. I rather enjoy the banter between the Two Mikes and at times a few gems are produced. Mike Parry was distraught this morning. He was apoleptic and I was very tempted to send an email expressing my concern for his health. The anger from contributers was palatable and many of the comments were astonishingly juvenile, along with the excuses now pouring forth from 'those who know'.
Am I sorry England didn't receive the accolade from 22 individuals (two having already been suspended upon fraud allegations)? I'm ambivalent.
There's certainly no ambivalence here and this writer deserves a job with the MSM, because no MSM journalist looked into the Russian bid with such an eagle eye. If anyone is interested in a view of the Qatar 2022 bid they could do worse than read this.
Oh. The good news is that earlier I received an email earlier from my Australian friends and they intend to visit anyway. They'll go and watch Celtic, hopefully Aberdeen if it still exists by then (their words not mine) and I'll be joining them in a long overdue visit to Tannadice. A visit to certain English teams also seems to be on the cards for them. Phew, so it's not all bad news. I can concentrate my mind on rugby when they're away following their millionaire idols.
Posts
20 comments:
Wus They Robbed?
No just put in their place that London is not the centre of the universe and its about time they faced reality.
Well I think that it's about time that Scotland hosted the world cup. The final being held at, well a toss up between the grounds of Arbroath or Cally thistle...
We have seen in the English press today that England’s was the best bid, but it was scuppered by the BBC/Sunday Times exposé, the fact that Russia gave them a bung and that FIFA is corrupt....
I wonder, had England won, would the papers be so full of how corrupt FIFA is.
Ironically the press were almost unanimous about the corruption, and yet condemnatory of the Sunday Times and the BBC for exposing this corruption only on Monday, four days ago.
The natural conclusion to come to is that whilst the rest of the press knew that FIFA was corrupt, they wanted that kept quiet until England had it in the bag... which if it doesn’t make them (the press) corrupt too, it certainly makes them complicit in corruption.
I wonder there wasn't anyone in the Press who might have seen how they were walking into that trap.
Wus they robbed?
To quote the late, great Clark Gable, sorry Rhett Butler –
“ Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”
There will be many households in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who equally don’t give a damn, and will be so glad when England realises that they lost and that they just have to get on with life, and live with the result.
@ Budvar – please, please I beg you - don’t wish for anything so grand on Caley Thistle’s ground down on the Longman. It would bring poor Inversneky to a complete and total standstill from which it would probably never recover.
It's a win win really. England don't get to host the finals and the BBC get the blame :)
And what's with the 'King of England' speech from cast iron ?
I watched the England presentation and cast iron said 'our bid' and 'king of england ' . I thought he was PM of the UK and that King Billy would be king of the UK and NI ?
The whole presentation was bizarre. Like a UN appeal for help rather than an advertisement for the England that most people know.
I feel that way CH. Just can't get upset about it at all.
Didn't Alex Salmond suggest we put in a combined bid with Eire at one time Budvar?
I've never heard such hysteria for a while Tris. Pity it's about football and not the incompetence of our rulers.
Good for you John. I don't think it's done much for Anglo-Russian relations though. :)
Jings RM, thankfully I was saved from the presentation. Heard a bit about it on radio and couldn't believe that people like Cameron would get involved to that degree.
Boo hoo hoo, S'not fair.
@RMcGeddon I didn't listen to Daves speech but he was addressing intercontinental foreigners for whom England, UK and Britain are more or less synonymous, sad but true; in context, referring to the 'King of England was probably meant to simplify things.
If Fifa is indeed so corrupt and it was so important to win... did anyone think of bribing the judges?
You might allow a little more sympathy for the piteous whining from south of the Border if it wasn't for the cynicism and greed of the English Premier League. Isn't there something in the Bible about motes and beams? The real turn off for me was the sense of entitlement that all the presenters and indeed the news media conveyed in their vainglory. Indeed, listening to the Prime Minister it struck me as disappointing that his very expensive education didn't alert to the inevitable consequence that nemesis follows hubris.
Oh Trooper, surely not. :)
Sorry Richard, but my sympathy is lacking. Mainly because of the depth of my lack of interest.
I think England were robbed.
Although you could put a case for Russia, the scale of England's defeat - two votes and one of them was an Englishman - suggests something went badly wrong.
England put a lot of effort into their bid and they must seriously wonder what they have to do to host the tournament. Sooking up to creeps like Jack Warner hasn't worked.
It's clear FIFA would give the tournament to Zimbabwe if Mugabe gave them enough money.
And that's merely the 2018 bid. The 2022 decision defies explanation. Qatar? Daytime temperatures of 100 degrees, a population of 1.5 million, no rivers or lakes, and, as a Muslim state, no sale or advertising of alcohol. Who believes this is the ideal place to host a month-long football tournament.
This is how Private Eye reported on the South Africa World Cup -
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7909/privateeye0001.jpg
And some number crunching from the same Eye -
£400m Profit made by South Africa from World Cup
£700m Profit made by FIFA from World Cup
£0 Tax paid in South Africa by FIFA on World Cup activities, a precondition of holding it there
I'd agree something did go radically wrong William but somehow, having read the PE article, they've had a lucky escape. The numbers show that surely.
Today I heard someone suggest England should set up another World Cup type of event. Why not if that's what football fans want?
@ Richard T
The real turn off for me was the sense of entitlement that all the presenters and indeed the news media conveyed in their vainglory.
The frenzied hype that accompanies any international tournament, not to mention continual references to 1966, are the reasons why the Scots, Welsh, Northern and Southern Irish don't support us.
But yes, I'm so gutted the bid was unsuccessful.
"Today I heard someone suggest England should set up another World Cup type of event."
I think England should certainly consider it. This hostility to the UK extends to all of us (cf. the comments by John McBeth for which he was sacked). The US were also treated badly in the bidding process.
We may wax lyrical about the World Cup but, in reality, there is no World Cup without Brazil and the major Western European nations (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, England, Holland). You might get away with throwing in Argentina there.
There is scope there, I think, for an alternative organisation that allows the countries that make football successful to run the game without having to gain the support of the 'less developed' nations.
I'm all for allowing people to participate in the game but the system is being abused.
It would seem a majority would support you there William but the set up would have to be whiter than white.
Post a Comment