The Singapore Forum

Well, congratulations to Russia, it should be good. Qatar proved that you can buy the World Cup. I predict a shambles of a World Cup there.

Bad luck England. A bit like Australia and our reality check of only getting vote vote, you've got to be left stinging with only getting two votes.

FIFA does need to be a lot more transparent though. The Qatar decision is mind boggling. 1 Million visitors in 1 city ? 50C outside ? No alcohol ? Great place to host the world event.

You think Russia didn't buy it as well? HA!

All winners have to some extent bought / bartered for votes.

But nothing as blatant as Qatar was ever come close.

It's akin to Singapore winning the rights to the Winter Olympics. Just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Russia is ok, football is and has been played there for a very long time. Qatar however has no history and football and the stadiums will be filled with tourists or empty. Australia would have been a much better choice

I think Russia would be a pretty cool place for the WC, lots of stuff to see and do in between matches and chilled vodka for the louts

Qatar, hmmm, can't quite get my head around that one.

Would the fact that Britain is hosting the Olympics in 2012 have any bearing on awarding another major event in the same country? Not suggesting that Russia didn't deserve it, just wondering

Don't think the Olympics would be a reason (Brazil has the WC and the Olympics in 2014 and 2016), rather the other way round as the infrastructure would already be good. England would have certainly been a very good choice, lots of enthusiasm (until England crashes out in the quarter finals of course)

I'm not into football at all. But on a basic logic level. I just don't understand the Qatar selection at all. I understand the Russia one, but not the other.

However, I don't think we deserved it though after that horrible horrible horrible kangaroo and paul hogan presentation, how utterly utterly embarrassing, unsophisticated and 20yrs behind the times. BTW did you know the paul hogan tax evasion charge was dropped last week.....

I think the bookies had both Russia and Qatar as favourites, and some of the other bids had held WC in my memory, e.g. USA, Japan.

I think the big hoopla is coming from what can be perceived as the Western nations, Australia, UK and US, because they feel they have little control and it's all a bit secretive.

By all accounts, the English bid was the best for commercial reasons and put together quite well, and therefore the English FA just don't understand what is required in order to make a successful bid. The Australian bid cost $40m, and got only 1 vote. Without that clarity, then those two countries are a little perplexed.

I can understand Qatar: it's bringing the top single-sport event to not only a new country, but a whole new region. It's only been played in Asia once and never been played in a Muslim, Arab or Middle Eastern state.

I can understand the Russian win too: it's never been played in an Eastern European state.

Unfortunately, no one seems to understand if this is an important part of the criteria.

Tas wrote:However, I don't think we deserved it though after that horrible horrible horrible kangaroo and paul hogan presentation, how utterly utterly embarrassing, unsophisticated and 20yrs behind the times. BTW did you know the paul hogan tax evasion charge was dropped last week.....

The media have really jumped onto the video and blaming that for our failure.

A couple of things to note.

a) That final video was a very very small piece of the bid. It, and the other countries videos, was just a fluff piece to be shown to the world as a way to pad out the whole voting ceremony. Not a single vote was decided based on the final videos.

b) Yes, ours made me cringe, but after watching the rest of the countries videos, ours would have been in the top 3. There were many many worse videos.

When Paul Hogan arrived on the video, I realised just how much Australia misses Steve Irwin.

guess got to be careful with phrasing, I don't think we lost on basis of fluff video, but it was just so awful. Hadn't had chance to see the others yet, they must have been pretty bad...

The US will never get Olympics or World Cup again until our post 9/11 mentality changes

Any member of either selection committee will tell you why if asked directly.

Nobody who is not fron an EU or Commonwealth country has a snowballs chance in hell of getting a visa to come to the states & even those citizens have a hard time too. We've lost all the world conferences too for the same reason . Hoteliers have been telling anyone who will listen the same thing over the last 5 years.

Russia could be bit dangerous but definitely fun for world football fans. But Qatar - thats just ridiculous

I would have been happy if England had won, but have no problem with the vote going to Russia (the alleged corruption in FIFA aside), but I really don't get Qatar. I am all for bringing a sporting event to a new county of region, but apart from that and oodles and oodles of cash, what does Qatar have going for it? And in a time when the world is supposed to be more concerned about environmenal and energy conservation issues, what kind of a message does it send to hold the tournament in a country where absolutely everything will need to be airconditioned?

Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari FIFA Delegate, Head of the AFC, was throwing considerable efforts to getting the vote and toppling Blatter at the next election.

Bin Hammam pulled out of the race around the same time Blatter started saying the Middle East should get the WC and Qatar was the right place for it.

Coincidence ? Surely not.

FIFA and the FA seem to be at loggerheads, and though the English bid cost a lot of money, it was a decision by the respective organising committee members to spend that amount.

Blatter has just blasted the English FA and, I must say, some of his comments hold true. I do believe England are being bad losers and are showing some of the behaviours he mentions.

Oh, well, when's the next test start?