If England had won the WC Bid by using corruption tactics would you be happy

[Surrey Villain]

One word: Mulberry handbags.

A bribe, and a shit one. Flavouring our bid with palm grease, while failing to get us any votes.

I'm afraidf I would.  If that's the 'investment' needed we have to get real.

[dave.woodhall]

We'd already offered to ignore the law for them, so we were hardly innocent ourselves.

[TimTheVillain]

We'd already offered to ignore the law for them, so we were hardly innocent ourselves.

We were only playing at it though.

Seasoned, cultural corruption wins; a few Mulberry Bags must have had the competition laughing their socks off as they transferred swagbags of  dosh into Switzerland.

[Dave Cooper please]

No, the fifteen million (or whatever) we have spunked away on this failure will hit grass roots football hard enough.

[The Left Side]

How much did the FA spend on the bid, anyone know?

[Ad@m]

One word: Mulberry handbags.

A bribe, and a shit one. Flavouring our bid with palm grease, while failing to get us any votes.

Isn't that two words?!

The whole process is a joke - its flawed and completely secret. The UK, Australia, and US should sue FIFA for encouraging them to enter a tournament they could not win. Although I'm sure FIFA would wriggle out of it somehow!

[damon loves JT]

One word: Mulberry handbags.

Isn't that two words?!

not if you say it fast

[DeKuip]

I'd like to think that Russia got it simply because it would have been hard to justify awarding it to western europe again when the east has never had it. Let's face it Russia have been a force in world football for a long time, they are one of the world's biggest countries, and the people of Russia have had to put up with some shit over the years from the state.
Did anyone ever watch the documentary film about those who died in a Moscow stadium disaster (Spartak I think it was) and the huge cover-up the families of those who died had to suffer from the secret police.
Their football fans deserve it far more than the prawn-sandwich brigade and celebrities who'd have got tickets to watch it in England.
It's hard to argue against them getting it - at least it is if it all was all fair and above board.

However, I suspect it wasn't. There is that much corruption in Russia it's difficult to imagine otherwise, and it's hard for me to look at pictures of Mr Chelski grinning and not think his deep pockets played some part.
Neither would I be surprised if a few decision-makers have been leant on by the Russian crime gangs who have taken over large parts of Southern France, the Spanish Costas and elsewhere with their corruption.

And what really makes me sick is that I don't suppose for one minute the long-suffering football fans of Russia will end up getting tickets to watch it.

[Legion]

Why England lost 2018

[The Man With A Stick]

No, because I didn't particularly want it here anyway.  And I agree with what Lucky Eddie says about MK, what a joke of a venue that would have been.

Besides, I'm sick of all the whinging over this.  As a country, can't we just accept that we might not have had the best bid for 2018?  The newspapers today are embarrassing.  Russia is a huge country, football mad, who've never hosted a major tournament - good luck to them.

[curiousorange]

They said that Russia getting the bid is going to help their country. And here was me thinking it was a football tournament and not fucking Live Aid.

[Salsa Party Animal]

and is there evidence of bribe from Russia / Qatar for World Cup ?

I think there should be a vote from every country and with 200 country there should be voting and no hidden vote. So this will mean less influence / power / greed on 22 people.

[dcdavecollett]

In my view this media overdrive, incorporating personalities(sic) like Beckham, war criminals like Cameron, and other parasites is just as corrupt as anything else.

What's wrong with submitting schemes for holding tournaments, putting a word limit of say, 5,000 words and just let people in charge decide.

Having these three shithouses whoring themselves around the conference meetings is an affront to human dignity, as indeed is their very existance.

Although I have no opinion on the outcome, it's worth considering the situation in RU. When the 2011 World Cup was given to New Zealand, many saw the choice as a missed opportunity to 'grow the game' in one of the smaller RU countries, e.g. Japan.

The game should be the thing, but it isn't.

[supertom]

I'm not bothered. We're gonna spunk enough money away on the Olympics. We can't afford hosting a World Cup. We're supposed to be pulling ourselves out a financial hole, not shitting away money on bailing out other countrys in debt, or friggin hosting tournements we'll do a half ass job with and have no chance of winning.

[Dave]

To play devils advocate you could argue that under Rous, FIFA was more or less run as a Europe-only cabal which completely ignored Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Maybe the last couple of years should just be seen as affirmative action to make up for 1950 - 1974,