Never Before In World Cup Venue Selection

Apparently a lot of people throughout the world is still quite upset about the selected venues for the coming Word Cups to be held in Russia and Qatar.

Never before, as far as I can remember, that there was so much of hoo haa in previous World Cup venue selection.

Argentine Football Association ("AFA") president Julio Grondona has to deny publicly that AFA didn't receive any payment of US$78.4 million (of bribe you mean?) that swayed his decision to vote for Qatar. That amount of money was rumoured to assist AFA out of their financial crisis involving the domestic Argentinian football league.

Somehow my blogpost on Is World Cup 2010 Fixed? is widely read in Argentina as it's being pasted in their football forums.

FIFA's general secretary, Jerome Valcke, then had to dismiss that there were many complaints about the World Cup voting procedures and that it wasn't transparent. Did it happen in previous World Cup venue selctions to this extent?

Just when you thought that everything's over now and that the respective host nation is to pick up from here and move forward in planning for a great World Cup.

Suddenly, Michel Platini - the UEFA President and Sepp Blatter - the FIFA President, suggested for calls to change the World Cup dates for Qatar from the summer period to the 'winter' period. They are saying that the footballers may not be at their best if they were to play in the heat of up to 50 celsius degree. That was the main point that shocked every football fans in the world.

Why choose them in the first place then if the summer heat was the main issue? I thought I read that Qatar has came out with excellent plans that stadiums will be air-conditioned and that the football pitch surroundings would be created with cooling effects. Now they are saying that it's too hot in the summer?!?!?!?!?!

What's the problem now?

The winter in the Middle East is normally around December to February with January being the 'coldest'. Are we saying that the 2022 World Cup will be played in year 2023 then?

If Qatar had submitted a World Cup bid detailing their plans to hold a 'winter' World Cup in the Middle East, would it have a significant effect on the voting exercises.

Now that Michel Platini has also called for the 2022 World Cup to be played at several Middle East countries at the same time, it has totally put the voting process into a disrepute. How can the venue be changed at this point of time? All this should have been highlighted in the bid and to be decided by the 22 FIFA executive committee members (another 2 committee members had been kicked out due to bribery scandals prior to the voting exercise) and not by two said individuals (Michel & Blatter) who have the loudest voice in the football arena.

Are we also saying that Qatar has to engage architects / engineers to review all the new stadiums again to accommodate the 'winter'? Do you need to switch on the air-conditioners during 'winter'?

Or that this 'winter' World Cup was actually in FIFA's mindset all this while even prior to the voting exercise? You tell me!

Not only that the architects / engineers have to amend the stadiums' drawings but all the football associations and football clubs in the world have to change their football schedules just to accommodate this so-called 'winter' World Cup.

Imagine the resources that are going to be wasted throughout the world.

Related post - Is World Cup 2010 Fixed?
Related post - Scandals Involving World Cups 2018 & 2022

Tags: World Cup Venue, Russia, Qatar, Argentine Football Association, Julio Grondona, World Cup Scandal, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter, Winter World Cup