FIFA give us our game back!

I have resisted the temptation on more than one occasion to submit my feelings over the recent voting fiasco to print. No matter how much we can all insist that we are writing from a moral position it will always seem and feel like one of sour grapes. And now doubt this article will be accused of falling into that particular category although I hasten to add I do so with the best of intentions. However I do feel the points I am about to make are relevant and therefore I am going to make them!

Interestingly, Uli Hoeness, now president of Bayern Munich after a long and distinguished playing and administrative career with the club,  speaking to the German magazine Sport Bild said last week:

"I think Mr. Blatter and the others responsible have to begin asking themselves whether it can carry on like this," Hoeness said in reference to the selection of Russia and Qatar as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively.

"It is a scandal how things are being done there. Clearly, these days a candidate can only be successful when additional payments are made under the table. Here I have to say that football's good image is being ruined.

"It's time the strong federations from Germany, England, Spain or France start to clean things up." 

So, at the moment I appear to be in good company, if Uli Hoeness can speak quite openly about FIFA's shortcomings then so can I. But lets look at the issues as I see them;

The recent voting, any  corruption allegations put to one side, was based on several criteria which all bidding nations had to comply with, failure to do so would render your bid as weak or inferior. But yet that criteria was totally ignored when the voting took place. What's the point of having to submit a very expensive technical bid if its then ignored? Why rank two countries bids as being 'at risk' and then award them the prize? It beggars belief!

FIFA have now stated that in their view their role is to expand the game and take it into new areas. But if that's the main criteria why wasn't it listed as such? And if it is the main criteria then why is it? FIFA's income streams are wholly from TV rights for its major competitions, so surely a successful World Cup from an established footballing nation makes more sense. Well it does if you compare any country with Qatar. What legacy, or match experience or anything resembling a successful World Cup will be achieved in holding the competition in a country the size of a postage stamp? I hear the arguments, I just don't see the logic. Expect the next few World Cups to see a decline in the travelling support of the major nations, Brazil too far and too expensive, Russia too big and without any hospitality or attraction and Doha (Qatar) as big as my back garden, although a lot hotter! Get that armchair ready, I'm joining everybody else.