Give me one, just one selection criteria in which the Qatar bid is superior to the Australian bid - just one!! tell u what, I'll help you with some of the selection criteria that the FIFA delegation look at;-
This is what Australia bring to the party -
Infrastructure - In place
World class Stadiums - In place
Transport links - In place
Climate - In place
Accomodation requirement (hotel beds) - In place
Culture - In place
Desire - Qatar cant even outbid Australia in the REAL desire amongst the rank and file nationals to actually win this event!!
Short of the couple of thousand die hard fans who weekly go and watch their teams in the Super league or whatever it is called, I really doubt whether there is ANY momentum outside of the inner tabernacle in Qatar to actually WANT this event - I imagine that to the average Qatari, the idea of in excess of 100,000 football fans decending on their little country fills them with utter dread!! The bidding is a good political tool to indicate to a watching world the the little arab state is endeavouring to punch above its weight and wants to be taken seriously - fair enough!! But lets not pretend that this is anything other than pie in the sky - Ive said it before and I will say it again - if the selection for the WC was run along the same lines as the Olympics, the Qatar bid would fall embarrassingly at the first hurdle. BTW if you think I am wrong on the soccer popularity in this country, check out the attendance tonight when the national team takes on Iraq!!!!
To offer balance I will say this - the event is 10 years away - maybe just maybe FIFA will look over the horizon and get ambitious.......leave you with that thought!
Give me one, just one selection criteria in which the Qatar bid is superior to the Australian bid - just one!! tell u what, I'll help you with some of the selection criteria that the FIFA delegation look at;-
This is what Australia bring to the party -
Infrastructure - In place
World class Stadiums - In place
Transport links - In place
Climate - In place
Accomodation requirement (hotel beds) - In place
Culture - In place
Desire - Qatar cant even outbid Australia in the REAL desire amongst the rank and file nationals to actually win this event!!
Short of the couple of thousand die hard fans who weekly go and watch their teams in the Super league or whatever it is called, I really doubt whether there is ANY momentum outside of the inner tabernacle in Qatar to actually WANT this event - I imagine that to the average Qatari, the idea of in excess of 100,000 football fans decending on their little country fills them with utter dread!! The bidding is a good political tool to indicate to a watching world the the little arab state is endeavouring to punch above its weight and wants to be taken seriously - fair enough!! But lets not pretend that this is anything other than pie in the sky - Ive said it before and I will say it again - if the selection for the WC was run along the same lines as the Olympics, the Qatar bid would fall embarrassingly at the first hurdle. BTW if you think I am wrong on the soccer popularity in this country, check out the attendance tonight when the national team takes on Iraq!!!!
To offer balance I will say this - the event is 10 years away - maybe just maybe FIFA will look over the horizon and get ambitious.......leave you with that thought!