I remember back in 2010 when Russia and Qatar were announced and everyone was very critical of both decisions and the supposed deals that had been done. England themselves had been up to no good, apparently, trying hard to woo Jack Warner who ultimately voted for Russia. England even hired an ex Spy to find out what Russia were up to, and he seemingly discovered a lot! 16 of the 22 members who awarded those deals are now banned / under investigation. There has been suggestions on a lot of world cups about how deals were done to get them to their country. South Africa and Germany were shrouded in accusations. If you really want to go back in time Uruguay hosted the first world cup, supposedly in part due to offering to pay all travelling teams expenses, which nobody else could match. I am not defending Qatar here by the way, just depressing myself about how FIFA have been corrupt, allegedly, forever.
I suppose I cant not watch this one, on the grounds of corruption, having watched the others. I dont like it of course. What really bothers me, the nearer we get, is the human rights issues. I read a report recently stating c6500 immigrant workers had died working in Qatar since they won the world cup. Maybe they arent all working on the world cup, but nevertheless if true it is quite some statistic.
The world cup, for me, is like Christmas and Birthday all rolled into one. I have loved every single day of them and I cant imagine not watching and loving this one to be honest, in spite of everything I have posted above. I would love FIFA to be scrapped and restarted, but I am afraid I will be glued to the matches as always.