Qatar World Cup - Helping Hand into Modernity or Easy (& Dirty) Money for FIFA?

[Macman]

NFL is insane $$$ wise!

I hope as a result of these investigations, FIFA is forced to start from scratch and get rid of Blatter.

This is what the public wants although this has no bearing as they are voted through in-house.

[Saracen]

Well, Putin apparently has full confidence in Blatter. I wonder how "helpful' Blatter thinks that is?

Says it all, for me, though.

[The Hand]

Blatter refuses to resign...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32917364

The arrogance of this man is breathtaking.

Edit: The BBC has just changed this article from "Blatter refuses to resign" to "Sepp Blatter under pressure".

[Domestic_Ginger]

Putin is in Blatter's Pocket. If he wants his world cup he needs Blatter to stay in. Any reasonable replacement is going to reevaluate the bidding process. The Russians may have destroyed any evidence from their bidding process but the Americans appear to have a enough little piggies to make at least one squeal. With the WC in 2018 it may be too late to change venue.

Blatters power has been built on pleasing the smaller nations that joined FIFA after it was founded. The development money is a huge incentive to developing nations to tow the line. The rivals in the presidential election have realised this and upped their aid packages. Sepp still has a a lot fans though who see him as generous.

UEFA has been unable to have any of impact purely because it does not holdd any kind of majority.

[shaithis]

(no, most Americans still won't call it football, because we sort of have our own sport with that name, which is a far larger financial machine than 'soccer' is.)

As there are 3 football events that are financial larger than the superbowl, I doubt it very much.....and that's before we even try the almost impossible task of counting how many football leagues there are globally.

Of course, like so many things, Americans don't think much further then America.....topically realised in the name "World Series"


As for the real football debate......the sooner Sepp goes, the better. I really hope that there is a major overhaul of the system, especially after the recent Sepp crap about "relaxing FFP" days before it goes into full effect and so many teams have been working towards it for the last few years.

[Galant]

As there are 3 football events that are financial larger than the superbowl, I doubt it very much...

Pretty sure GuidoLS meant that the NFL is much larger financially within the USA - since he was referring to why Americans don't call football football but instead call american football football. (Typing that sentence just made my day.)

[shaithis]

Pretty sure GuidoLS meant that the NFL is much larger financially within the USA - since he was referring to why Americans don't call football football but instead call american football football. (Typing that sentence just made my day.)

Hence my second line

[Galant]

Yes but in this instance it's less to do with being insular and more to do with the growth of sports within their own nation.

American football grew out of rugby which is properly named Rugby Football. Since American Football became more popular than soccer it's fair and understandable that the more popular sport took the proper name.

Australians play soccer, rugby (union and league) and Aussie rules football. Usage varies but footy or football more commonly refers to rugby than soccer, which takes the latter name. Few would consider the Aussies insular in the way that is often ascribed to the Americans.

So while I'd agree with you about the usage of the term World Series, I have to contend for the usage of the term Soccer being valid in its own right, and not a sign of an insular focus, just the natural progression of sports in that nation.

Oh and 'Soccer' is also fair usage because it's actually a name of British origin.

[Galant]

I have to say that I've been puzzled by Blatter's leadership ever since, during the discussion about goal-line technology, he went on the books as saying that football wouldn't be interesting/exciting without the controversy over bad calls by the refs. Now I'm not a massive football fan but how a world leader in football can have such disdain (as it appears to me) for the sport was and is shocking to me.

Utter madness in how world football is run, and more and more, much disgust.

[aidanjt]

Oh and 'Soccer' is also fair usage because it's actually a name of British origin.

Soccer is shorthand for Association Football. It's still football, because it's played, with the foot, and a ball. Not hands, and an egg.

[Galant]

One can hardly blame the Americans for calling their game football when English originally called rugby football despite the usage of egg and hands.


But since this sub-topic is afoot we might want to be careful that it doesn't get out of hand.

#getscoat (red)

[Repressor]

Putin is in Blatter's Pocket. If he wants his world cup he needs Blatter to stay in. Any reasonable replacement is going to reevaluate the bidding process. The Russians may have destroyed any evidence from their bidding process but the Americans appear to have a enough little piggies to make at least one squeal. With the WC in 2018 it may be too late to change venue.

Blatters power has been built on pleasing the smaller nations that joined FIFA after it was founded. The development money is a huge incentive to developing nations to tow the line. The rivals in the presidential election have realised this and upped their aid packages. Sepp still has a a lot fans though who see him as generous.

UEFA has been unable to have any of impact purely because it does not holdd any kind of majority.

Ah yes, Russia used leased laptops to do all work relating to the World Cup bidding..... and then had them all immediately destroyed afterwards.

[GuidoLS]

Hence my second line

Guess you're referring to that article on Forbes from 2012. Can't dispute it. I do know it's reported that the Super Bowl is a mufti-billion dollar event, so someone is getting paid.

As for the "World Series", the simple fact is, it's not financially feasible to move teams from around the world to play any sport on a schedule like MLB plays - that is, multiple times a week. That being said, it cannot be disputed that the best players in the world, from around the world, all play in, or want to play in, the MLB. So while the title may be a bit grandiose, it's not really that far off of the mark.

All things being equal, the Little League World Series is mostly worldwide, even if the Europeans choose not to play. As far as pro leagues go, I'm not aware of any truly international pro leagues in existence, with the possible exception of the UFC. You can call it the World Cup all you want, but it's just as easy to call it the European/South American Cup. Even Australia hasn't really felt all that inclined to participate, or most of the Middle East, large swaths of Asia and much of Africa... a good deal of that has been politics, be it caused by FIFA, the leadership in the various countries, etc, but the fact still holds.

As far as being a tad self-concerned, for some reason, most of the EU/Europe seems to forget that the US has cities that are larger than most European countries in population, and that those cities have sports histories/legacies that rival anything else the rest of the world has to offer. And I don't see anything wrong with that, any more than I see a problem with people cheering on Man United, or Boca or River.

Back on topic, though - for a change, it's nice that it's not a US corporation/organization or person that's trashing the reputation of a worldwide product. Sad that it's happening at all. And again, I'll not get into the political ramifications involved.

And yes, soccer is short for Association Football, just as Rugger is short for Rugby Football - both terms coined by the Brits in the 19th century, leaving the word Football open, and duly absconded by us Americans for our version of the game. <humor> Just 'cause y'all thought you owned the entire world back then doesn't entitle you to domination of the spoken word... </humor>

[Lanky123]

Perhaps we should try and get the Swiss police (or FBI) to ref games as well?

[The Hand]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32941740

And so it goes on... Blatter, the All powerful and infallible! I'm wondering if the 73 countries who voted against Blatter should boycott the World Cup/FIFA entirely.. Start a rival world football association (WFA?) and have their own World Cup? I'm pretty sure the sponsors would follow this example and jump ship. Leave FIFA and their practices with Blatter and the basket-case countries who voted for him.

[neonplanet40]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32941740

And so it goes on... Blatter, the All powerful and infallible! I'm wondering if the 73 countries who voted against Blatter should boycott the World Cup/FIFA entirely.. Start a rival world football association (WFA?) and have their own World Cup? I'm pretty sure the sponsors would follow this example and jump ship. Leave FIFA and their practices with Blatter and the basket-case countries who voted for him.

I don't understand why this hasn't already happened. IF they won't then it seems they are literally all talk!