You’ve Got To Be Joking

I’ve been (finally) writing a couple posts, one a ‘coming out of hibernation’ omnibus, but holy crap, FIFA have challenged the laws of physics with this.

I’ll have a bit more of a run down later tonight (or early tomorrow) but I had ranked Russia second or third likely to get the 2018 cup, and Qatar?

I didn’t even consider that bid a realistic possibility.

When was the last time Qatar were in the World Cup finals?  They’ll be there in 2022.  I’m sure they’ll progress far.

At least with England not getting the 2018 cup, we won’t have the embarrasment of Plymouth hosting matches with a 3rd Division club (assuming they’re still in business next week) and I don’t have to worry about any roadblocks preventing the continued depreciation of the value of my house.

Update [Paul]: I’ve got $20 that says the 2022 World Cup won’t be held in Qatar. First the bid is based on assertions that yet to be invented technology will be deployed to deal with the heat in open air stadia (it’s 115 in the afternoon in the summer). Second the security situation is likely to be bad. Third not enough people are going to want to spend big bucks to go to a desert nation with a population of 1.2 million where you can’t drink in public. So what will happen is that in a few years FIFA will raise “serious concerns” about infrastructure, security etc. After an ugly wrangle the thing will get moved elsewhere (cf. the 1986 Cup). The bribes, however, will not be refunded.