Someone said that Infantino was supposed to be an improvement on Blatter, but turns out to have just been an upgrade. Since Havelange FIFA has been structurally corrupt, but good things could be done, even if it meant doing deals with shady people to get there. Infantino has basically removed that. He got in by playing different faces to different groups. A reformer and cleaner upper to us, sympathetic to others, supporting growing the game to smaller countries, someone to distribute funds more fairly, but a friend to bigger federations. Then once in he sured up he power base by filling it with his supporters and backers. To quote Jim Gordon in Batman Begins, "in a town this corrupt, who are you going to rat to?" From what I gather the Aussies were going to bid, but we're basically told it would go nowhere. No support from their own confederation and the prospect of being punished if they did bid, Australia isn't popular among a lot of the Asian Football Association, with some Arab countries pushing for them to be expelled. Africa is backing the AFA, so were most of South America and the splits in UEFA meant they'd struggle to get many onside from there. In the end they'd have been lucky to get more than 20 countries backing them. In the end, saying it was only going to Asia or Oceania then was guaranteeing it to Saudi, because anyone else would be little more than a protest vote and the approximate £20 million it would cost to bid would just be money wasted that they might not really be able to afford. As a side point, none of the home nations FAs have particularly good relations with the Aussies, going back 40 years. During the bid for 2018 the Aussies were ****houses to our bid, backstabbing and carrying tails to curry favour with Blatter and co, little realising they were getting shafted themselves. Things have improved in recent years, but are at best "professional". Contrast that to the yanks, where even though Chuck Blazer screwed us at the same time, relations between the FAs is very friendly and we were big supporters of them getting the next world cup.
The answer is easy, if EUEFA were not so corrupt itself. As Leonarrt Johanson hinted at some years ago, EUEFA should withdraw from FIFA and the WC. Then, every four years, hole a "Euro Plus" tournament. European teams, plus a few invites elsewhere. I wonder where the sponsors money would go if there was no Germany, Italy, England, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium etc in the WC?
