By Ollie Irish

Who the hell is that scything down C-Ron? The clues are there.

Previous answer: Twas oft-forgotten Chelsea striker Chris Sutton disguised as Sepp Blatter. For once, no one got it right. I win! The proof:

At 3:37pm on Thursday, 2nd December 2010, it was announced by Fifa president Sepp Blatter that Russia will be the host nation for the 2018 World Cup.

Ater tireless preparation by some of England's most prestigious faces that includes the likes of Prince William, PM David Cameron, David Beckham, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker, our bid was subsequently eliminated in the first round of voting.

Russia, Qatar and the World Cup sponsors seeking out new markets are the obvious beneficiaries of Fifa's decision to steer the global soccer juggernaut firmly into new territories. But Blatter's buddies have spawned a host of less obvious marketing winners...and more than a few losers...

When FIFA voted to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it was promoted as "bringing football to a new world and a new culture" as well as bringing the World Cup to the "entire Middle East." And now, it seems that sentiment might be taken quite literally by the game's governing bodies as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar may very well change the way have ever held the tournament before.

By Ollie Irish

"Who is this buffoon?"

"Er, I'm the Prime Minister, Sepp."

FIFA dictator Sepp Blatter has described the English as "bad losers" over the fall-out from their failed 2018 World Cup bid.

"To be honest, I was surprised by all the English complaining after the defeat.

Rusia organizará el Mundial del 2018 y Qatar el del 2022

ZÚRICH, Suiza Terminó la espera y se cumplieron los pronósticos de los que se venían hablando en los últimos días. Rusia organizará el Mundial del 2018 y Qatar el del 2022.

Así vivimos la jornada minuto a minuto.

It's clear the best bid on paper will never win. And nor should it.

But why did England do so badly and how can they guarantee they host the World Cup in 2026?

England's one additional vote is the embarrassing equivalent of 'Nil Point' at Eurovision. Yes, our bid was reduced to the level of Jemini.

Tomorrow, the world finds out which countries will play host to the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. And if the United States, who is bidding for the 2022 Cup, does not get the nod, I suspect that many people will be tremendously disappointed.

But, it won't be the end of the world. Quite the opposite.

It's tempting to claim that bribes, favours, politics and financial opportunity determined the fates of World Cups 2018 and 2022 long before the staged drama of bid presentations yesterday and today.

It's easy to say that Blatter is taking the World Cup to Russia to make money, or that Qatar got the World Cup to build Blatter's legacy.

From the Guardian:

Do blame the messenger?

5.28pm:
BBC's David Bond tweets: Before today's WC vote, Blatter reminded FIFA executive comm members about "certain media" and "recent media coverage."

How Qatar won 2022 vote

4.59pm:
Qatar beat USA 14-8 in the fourth round of voting, but almost claimed it in the first round.

Those are the Press Freedom Index rankings for the two newest World Cup host nations (thanks to Fredorrarci for pointing me to the Guardian World Cup bid live blog, 4:52 PM). The live blog ends with a link to the BBC's David Bond's tweet indicating Sepp Blatter had "reminded

The American public is not naive.

Did this moment ever matter?

And neither should you believe that the GoUSABid committee with Sunil Gulati as it's champion were either.

The motivational force required to participate and compete in the World Cup bid process is mountainous. Bringing on such luminaries as Bill Clinton, Morgan Freeman, and the Wasserman Group is not just a mere phone call by "soccer execs" in the United States.

The only thing more surprising than today's decision by FIFA to send the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 version of the tournament to Qatar is the shock and awe I have seen in the English-speaking world. This was never a fair fight it was only about money and greed. I stood at the Newseum in downtown Washington this morning for the announcement at the DC USA Bid event, and you could feel the air go out of the room as Sepp Blatter pulled Qatar's name from the 2022 envelope, choosing a country of roughly 1 million people that holds no footballing tradition over several well-qualified (but less well-funded) bids.

I have so many things I want to say about this ridiculous affair, there's a massive danger this will stray from an article and become a disgruntled, bitter rant. Premiership managers do it every week so I suppose I may as well.

First off, Sepp Blatter is a disgrace. He has not acted in the best interests of football at all, and in doing so has done it with zero class, integrity or decorum.

Russia and Qatar. The 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be going where no World Cup has gone before.
I was fairly unmoved by the whole shebang surrounding the bidding process. Certainly a fair few English noses have been put out of joint.
And many English journalists are now ranting and raving about the power of money and the questionable attitudes of the two countries to human rights and media freedom.

By Chris J. Ballard

Following last week's Zurich debacle, and having got fed up with seeing the smug face of Sepp Blatter everywhere, I wanted to find out how the FIFA President is elected. Given the murky way in which the World Cup hosts are decided, I'd rather expected it to be conducted in secret, with very little accountability.

Sepp plays down World Cup fears Sepp Blatter has joked that homosexuals should give celibacy a try if they head to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Concerns about hosting the World Cup in a country where drinking alcohol in public and homosexuality are illegal have been raised since the Middle East country was awarded [.

Sepp Blatter is crazy and not just because John Ameachi says so. He's crazy for requesting that homosexualists refrain from sex during the Qatar World Cup because, let's be real here, it doesn't matter if you are gay or straight: if you are paying these prices for a hotel room you are damn sure going to try to make out with somebody in it.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Club World Cup reaches its climax and will have a fresh feel to it. The image of Barcelona is changed and Sepp Blatter makes the headlines for the wrong reason.

Europe Back-Scratching With a Global Reach -- from The NY Times' George Vecsey: "He is one of a handful of truly global figures who is highly respected." FIFA's World Cup scramble is also about the future of its presidency -- from SportsFeatures.com's Keir Radnedge: Blatter has been polite and encouraging to everyone.

By Ollie Irish

This.

Qatar?! It's glorious win for petro-dollars football. And for intolerance (homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, for example). Hurrah! ... Tis a joke decision, frankly, and more proof that FIFA is a repulsive organisation not so long ago, the Qatar bid was deemed "high risk".

Russia and Qatar will host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups respectively. Both first time hosts were announced earlier this morning by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter in Zurich, Switzerland. Here are excerpts the official announcement of the hosts from the FIFA.com: The FIFA Executive Committee has chosen Russia to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup™, [.

Vía FIFA.
El Comité Ejecutivo de la FIFA ha elegido a Rusia para organizar la Copa del Mundo 2018, mientras que el Mundial 2022 será para Qatar. El Presidente de la FIFA, Joseph Blatter, anunció el resultado de la votación secreta del Comité Ejecutivo de la FIFA el jueves 2 de diciembre de 2010 en el Messe de Zúrich.

I'm of the opinion that FIFA are so corrupt that the Panorama programme is highly unlikely to cause Sepp Blatter to do anything more than shrug his shoulders and move on to the next deal. After all he knows where all the bodies are. If anyone blames the BBC for this they are plain silly.
I loved Blatter's grave remark about the envelope being put into his hands by a Swiss notary and hence had not been tampered with.

Those are the Press Freedom Index rankings for the two newest World Cup host nations (thanks to Fredorrarci for pointing me to the Guardian World Cup bid live blog, 4:52 PM). The live blog ends with a link to the BBC's David Bond's tweet indicating Sepp Blatter had before the vote "reminded FIFA executive comm members about 'certain media' and 'recent media coverage'", referring to BBC's Panorama programme on the alleged corruption of several FIFA committee members.

Those are the Press Freedom Index rankings for the two newest World Cup host nations (thanks to Fredorrarci for pointing me to the Guardian World Cup bid live blog, 4:52 PM). The live blog ends with a link to the BBC's David Bond's tweet indicating Sepp Blatter had before the vote "reminded FIFA executive comm members about 'certain media' and 'recent media coverage'", referring to BBC's Panorama programme on the alleged corruption of several FIFA committee members.

World Cup 2018/2022 FIFA: Forging legacies or causing suspicious farce? is a post from: Just Football

What do you get for the man who has everything? Well, nothing, according to FIFA. The decision taken today by the executive committee to award the World Cup to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022 openly demonstrate FIFA's intention to spread the game to all the corners of the globe.

I'm still trying to sort through my feelings about today's crushing announcement in Zurich that tiny, human rights-challenged Qatar, not the United States, will serve as host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. I had predicted on Twitter a few days ago that Russia and Qatar would prevail for 2018 and 2002, respectively, more out of my natural sense of pessimism and lack of faith in FIFA than anything else.

First things first, hard luck to England and their World Cup bid. Coming from a country whose best sport is one that only 10 countries in the world play and only 5 play well (seriously, I don't know why New Zealand is still playing Cricket), India has never had to face the disappointment of 'losing out' on hosting any premier event in the sport.

The fall-out from yesterday's double-shock in Switzerland continues after FIFA selected Russia and Qatar as hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
England were humiliated with only two votes, one of which came from their own representative Geoff Thompson, and Spain/Portugal, the favourites, were left scratching their heads after Russia romped home 13-7 in the second round.

What can I say that hasn't been said? There's only one angle that matters, that FIFA finally crossed whatever lines remained that it hadn't managed to cross already. As Americans, we're disappointed we won't have the World Cup at home again. As soccer fans, we're angry that FIFA so baldly flaunted what we knew all along; that they're corrupt, incompetent, or both.

Twitter, the micro-blogging site, was used to share the identities of the host countries of soccer's 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups before they were officially announced yesterday.

LONDON, England Acting chairman of the FA Roger Burden has said he will quit because he no longer trusts members of Fifa after the failure of England's World Cup bid. Sky News' sport correspondent Ian Dovaston said: "He basically feels he cannot work with Fifa because he would find it difficult to work with [.

If Sir Alex Ferguson's recent comments were quoted accurately – and let's face it, huge doubts must always exist, he will not be shedding any tears over England's failure to secure the hosting rights...
Continue to the full story

Further to my earlier post on the failed England World Cup Bid and the revelation, by Martin Samuels, of the agreement, by our politicians, to allow the laws of this country to be circumnavigated by the FIFA mafia.I read, in the Mail on Sunday, that Boris Johnson has taken revenge on ‘Don Corleone' Blatter and the other FIFA delegates who destroyed England's bid to host the World Cup by kicking

Manchester United fans are no different to any others. They hate the man who has hijacked the 'The Beautiful Game' so here's your chance to have a good laugh at FIFA President Sepp Blatter's expense...
Continue to the full story

Oops...On Thursday morning we watched with bated breath for FIFA's 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts announcement. And in a single moment our hopes for the United States to be the home for the world's largest sporting spectacle in 12 years time vanished like a fart in the wind.
When Sepp Blatter pulled "Qatar" out of that plain white envelope my heart sank.

Jonathan Wilson on Douglas Costa and friends at Shahktar. Memories....

Sepp Blatter says there's no 'systematic' corruption at FIFA. So...

Clint interview.

Last summer, Dempsey's agent confirmed that there were some Champions/Europa League regulars monitoring him.

Sepp Blatter is peeved that the English are not too happy with the results. Nor are the Australians, Spaniards, and the Americans.

"There is no systematic corruption in Fifa. That is nonsense. We are financially clean and clear."

The Sunday Times and BBC's Panorama has shown this to be a bald, shining lie.

Dangers to fans and players have prompted the Asian Football Confederation to urge FIFA to reschedule the 2022 World Cup to January or February in order to avoid the scorching 40 degree summer heat in Qatar.
AFC General Secretary Peter Velappan also believes European countries may boycott in protest at the dangerously hot temperatures and that the proposed air-conditioned stadiums are not enough.