Just saw this and thought what a top bloke. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/new...-caring-sick-and-poor-kids-article780115.html
Qatar have spent a lot of money setting up academies is *deep breath* Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Vietnam, Thailand, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Which could explain how the Qatar team features players who are obviously from Senegal or Ghana...
Sure beats offering a friendly against the teams' second string, which was the "generous" offer England gave Thailand. On paper, offering the chance for countries in the lower reaches of the FIFA World Rankings the carrot of helping their players improve will make them look kindly on any bid they make to host a World Cup - except the centres in countries that can play (Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Paraguay) look more suspicious, as they have less of a need as their players are of a higher standard and, in the case of Senegal and Ghana, Qatar would be the third choice for players after France, then their home country (and I seriosuly doubt any Costa Rican or Paraguayan would ditch their home country - unlike, say, half the France squad for the '98 World Cup...) Also, anyone doubt the David Beckham Academy set up in Trinidad last year wasn't in any way trying to swing a vote for the 2018 bid? Just saying...
None of it should be relevant, though. Qatar spending loads of money in these countries should not allow them to win with an obviously sub-standard bid that doesn't advance the sport. It's obvious corruption.
How is it "obvious corrpution", exactly? England's bid was substandard in the extreme - which people conveniently ignore - and wasn't for the advancement of the sport, more the advancement of various FA board members' end of year bonuses.
Not this again The technical reports show that the winning countries had far worse bids than those who lost out.
I'd rather thave Dave Ja Vu, but apparently we'd all rather watch the crap on Really instead... The same reports that had reservations about government support, or lack thereof, of the US, Japanese and Australian bids, you mean?
I posted the dossiers of each bid a week or so ago - only two of the 2022 bids didn't have concerns about government support for the bids: Qatar and South Korea. I doubt it's a coincidence that these were the top two bids of the first round of voting, whilst South Korea and the USA were level in the second. That's not corrupt, but does come across as remarkably paranoid - to which you have to ask about what, or how much. As for Qatari money "destroying" the English game (thus far, no club bankrolled by Qatari money has won/bought anything in France or Spain), how is this worse than English/Russian/American money doing the exact same thing since the dawn of the Premier League?
The richest clubs dominating domestic football in leagues across Europe - be it England, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Croatia, Ukraine, Russia, Belgium - for the past few decades, a problem that has been magnified ever since the creation of the Champion's League. Is that not a problem that existed long before a few Qataris thought football would be a good way to show off their money?
