I blame the FA for organising the bid! lol

I can understand the annoyance with FIFA but in terms of who will benefit it'll be the Russian economy , just as the UK economy would have benefited.

Unfortunatly we can't hold the morale high ground to any country about Yob violence (cup final or otherwise).

Most of us have never witnessed the WC live in this country and we invented the game. We had everything in place now, ready to go. We would have put on one hell of a show too, as we have proved already with Euro 96.
I think it was just another chance for the little ones to give England a bloody nose, along with the nudge nudge wink wink favours for votes. How can a footballing nation with biggest league in the world, that invented the game, and is the most watched comp, together with a widely recognised as the best commercial/techinical bids get just 1 vote plus our own?


I blame Thatch!!!

Well I did see a World Cup played in England albeit on the TV way back you know when.

Seems to me Cameron turning up in Zurich and memories of Thatcher would have turned off a lot of the voters.

It does surprise me though that it has gone to Russia and then that tiny Arab country the time after.

I have decided not to go to either tournament in protest and if I am still alive when the games are played I shall go to a pub with no TV.

You don't have to go that far to be mugged by the police - I was only going 3mph over the speed limit in Wales on my motorbike and got 'mugged' for £60 and three points

- when I appealed it, because it was only 3mph, they said it is zero tolerance here in Wales

- never been back since!

What you going to do this coming season if we draw Crusaders or the Scorpions in the Challenge Cup ?

Let someone else drive me there -

it's about time you passed your test Frank

But then again .....

It's getting like the " Eurovision Song Contest!"

Nah we usually get No votes in that .........Blatter, Platini et al must n`t have much sway with that body of goons.

I expect the votes have been bought to be honest and I say that as a realist not a footie fan.

OK Russia has a large population but Qatar why would anyone want to go there when it has an average daily temperature of 45c when games would be played ? I would not go if I was a player never mind a fan of that game.

I`d have liked us to have got the WC but FIFA make the RFL the most sensible governing body. IMO the allocating of the WC is flawed to say the least and totally corrupt at best. I hope we as England never apply again and let the tools at FIFA go about their business with such sincerity.

I think the 2022 decision has shown it up as a farce even more than the Russian decision.

There were 5 options.

3 of them (usa, korea, japan) have hosted (or co-hosted) one of the last 5 world cups. No way should they have another one so soon.

Qatar.... they don't even have a pro league, the population doesn't care about football, their national team is awful, its a desert, they have yet to build 9 of the stadiums, 10 of which will be in the same city!! The weather and heat is a massive negative and the country is under sharia law with very strict alcohol laws etc etc which will put off visiting fans. The population (and country) is tiny so attendances will probably be poor.

And then austalia, growing football interest, structures in place, decent team, sporting nation and loads of other benefits.

You would expect australlia to get the bid EASILY surely?

No... they got ONE vote out of 22! ONE!!!

It is so obvious that something dodgy has gone on that it is almost laughable

Nice of all the So called Home nations voting for us, and i put EIRE in that Category as well.....

Bloody Ruskies. They get the World Cup, we get their weather!

Couldn't care less.

Personally I wouldn't have told dodgy Russians 'no'. I'd end up with a little red dot on my head.

They didn't get a vote.

Football will be a big draw in the 2012 Olympics and I would not give one FIFA officers a single ticket and Blatter and Platini should not be anywhere near the event,but they will smarm there way in as we all know.

Russia is a nightmare and I seriously hope very few fans travel there as they will be ripped off from the minute they get off the plane,scary stories from Utd and Chelsea fans who went to the final including bribing police to get them to even look at their valid tickets.

I hope English clubs win every singlr European cup just to see the disgust on Platini and Blatters faces when they present them to the winning teams captains.

Richard Lewis would make a cracking FIFA official by the way.

Careful Twitch

i await the backlash from our very own lewis,wood and rimmer.

personally couldn't care bloody less. if Tony Blair or Gordon Brown would have still been in power we would have won it after all they got Manchester the commonwealth and London the Olympics that's what we get for sending the three bloody stooges to do the business Curly,Mo, and Larry

What a complete load of tosh you spout sometimes.

Once again we agree Peawapp.

All this shock and indignation. The press calling FIFA the most corrupt organisation in the world. They should think themselves lucky they're not RL fans.

I have been giving it some more thought.

FIFA obviously want to boost Footie in Russia and they know ie the officials they will make a lot of money there and in Qatar.

It is a way of spreading the game and in Qatar's case expansionism whilst at the same time sticking two fingers up to Iran.

What hasn't been said about any of this is there were stipulations in the FIFA book on putting in a bid. In order for a country to be considered they had to agree to FIFA not paying any taxes in the country that got the World Cup and (get this one) the government of the country had to wave any visa restrictions on anyone coming under the FIFA banner. There was another but I can't remember it. The british government told FIFA in their bid that these things would have to be discused and could not just say yes. I find these clauses that are in the FIFA notes concerning the bids are as bad as the bungs given to the officials.