Lets hope the IOC is less corrupt than FIFA and doesn't just hand them the bid based on suitcases full of cash.

Worst world cup ever coming in 2022, compliments of Sepp Bladder and the rest of his criminal pissants.

Generation_D: Lets hope the IOC is less corrupt than FIFA and doesn't just hand them the bid based on suitcases full of cash.

Worst world cup ever coming in 2022, compliments of Sepp Bladder and the rest of his criminal pissants.

I can't imagine how any of those games played in that heat will be worth a damn. They'll all be snoozers in which players just sort of listlessly kick the ball around for the majority of the game, not attacking the goal, and the game ends in a 0-0 tie that eventually gets decided by a shootout.

Unlike any other World Cup ever.

fark Qatar.


Can't be said enough.

I've got an idea. Seeing as how soccer players don't need their hands to play the game, they can run around holding parasols, to stay in the shade.

Or FIFA can show some balls and say "No Air-conditioning. No World Cup."

Lunchlady: Sorry, only Tokyo has had an Olympics before.

Tokyo's Olympic campaigns are basically a huge farce perpetrated on a near-annual basis by Governor Ishihara, who is such a corrupt, moralistic hypocrite that he could go toe-to-toe with most of the current Reublican candidates for President and win.

The prefecture has spent billions of yen on previous bids, and none have amounted to anything. Most Tokyo residents are apathetic at best and against the bid at worst; it's a financial sink-hole and the last thing Tokyo in August needs is a million more people, especially if we're under power-use restrictions by then.

Now, that's not to say I wouldn't mind the Olympics because it'd be cool to see and Tokyo would probably get a new soccer-specific stadium that would be perfect for FC Tokyo afterward, but after a certain point you have to let it go, man.

Archie Goodwin: I've got an idea. Seeing as how soccer players don't need their hands to play the game, they can run around holding parasols, to stay in the shade.

Or FIFA can show some balls and say "No Air-conditioning. No World Cup."

Sometimes we forget how long 11 years is; I would bet that the '22 WC won't be held in Qatar at just about any odds.

dokool: Sometimes we forget how long 11 years is; I would bet that the '22 WC won't be held in Qatar at just about any odds.

I would bet that sh*t winds up getting done and nothing goes wrong and all the Middle East hate mongers/whiners never take any abuse for their rhetoric and claim they never said anything.

Greece was supposedly behind on meeting their requirements for their Olympics less than a year before the games. Sh*t still went down just fine. Every damn time it's a "oh no, the world is ending because my country didn't get what it wanted!" and every time, people manage to make it work. You don't think that Qatar has every interest in making this a superior World Cup? You think 11 years isn't enough time to get things done? Yeesh.

As for the whining from others about "it makes it at an inconvenient time for Americans to watch." No one gives a f*ck about the Americas. Most of the world's population is much closer in time to Qatar than the U.S. And they actually give a damn.

Yeah, it was bought with bribes. That's how every WC and every Olympics has worked for decades now.

IAmRight:
As for the whining from others about "it makes it at an inconvenient time for Americans to watch." No one gives a f*ck about the Americas. Most of the world's population is much closer in time to Qatar than the U.S. And they actually give a damn.

Ignoring the too-obvious "lol soccer isn't popular in the US" troll, you forget that there's an entire continent to the south of us that very much gives a damn, and their absence from the tournament would deprive the WC of its two biggest stars.

As far as the construction stuff, there's a huge difference between countries being behind being on their requirements (Greece, South Africa, just about every Olympic/WC host ever), general shadiness (Beijing), and none of the required stadia or infrastructure existing ten years before the tournament (Qatar).

I'm far more familiar with Asian soccer than any sane man should be, and I can tell you that Qatar has no right hosting a spelling bee much less an international competition. The 2011 Asian Cup was a complete and utter disaster and you'll see more of the same in 2022 no matter how much they spend on air conditioning.

FIFA knows they made a bad call and they'll walk it back as soon as they're able to (as in, when all of the people who took bribes from Qatar have retired); they also know that in a worst-case scenario they could organize a US edition in less than a month if they really need to do so.

dokool: Ignoring the too-obvious "lol soccer isn't popular in the US" troll, you forget that there's an entire continent to the south of us that very much gives a damn, and their absence from the tournament would deprive the WC of its two biggest stars

Oh, right, because they're just not going to show up because they'd have to see the games late at night. That's realistic.

dokool: FIFA knows they made a bad call and they'll walk it back as soon as they're able to (as in, when all of the people who took bribes from Qatar have retired); they also know that in a worst-case scenario they could organize a US edition in less than a month if they really need to do so.

Exactly. So why not let 'em actually try instead of whining for 12 years before any games start?

dokool: I'm far more familiar with Asian soccer than any sane man should be, and I can tell you that Qatar has no right hosting a spelling bee much less an international competition. The 2011 Asian Cup was a complete and utter disaster and you'll see more of the same in 2022 no matter how much they spend on air conditioning.

Seems like they have SOME infrastructure if they hosted a continental tournament. They'll probably learn from it and make it better next time. lol @ including "not many fans from North Korea showed up" as part of the controversy, though, Wikipedia.

IAmRight: dokool: Ignoring the too-obvious "lol soccer isn't popular in the US" troll, you forget that there's an entire continent to the south of us that very much gives a damn, and their absence from the tournament would deprive the WC of its two biggest stars

Oh, right, because they're just not going to show up because they'd have to see the games late at night. That's realistic.

Actually any potential boycott would be irrelevant to the timing of matches (not sure why you're fixated on that argument) and would have everything to do with the health and safety of the players. I can see the Brazilian and Argentinian FAs looking at air conditioning-less stadiums in the middle of the summer and saying "y'know what, we'll stick with the Copa Americana in '23) and leave it at that. I can see any number of FAs making that decision for whatever their true reasons may actually be. And they'd be justified.

Exactly. So why not let 'em actually try instead of whining for 12 years before any games start?

Because the Middle East's power plays are not healthy for the game, especially in Asia. I'd have less of a problem if they split off and form their own confederation because then they'd rank somewhere between Oceania and CONCACAF talent-wise, but they're basically holding back the rest of the AFC between a lack of professional domestic leagues and most of the smaller oil fiefdoms essentially having to import their national teams from Africa. South Korea, Japan, and Australia would all benefit immensely from not having to share the pitch w/ the likes of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Tajikistan... so would Singapore, Indonesia etc.

Seems like they have SOME infrastructure if they hosted a continental tournament. They'll probably learn from it and make it better next time. lol @ including "not many fans from North Korea showed up" as part of the controversy, though, Wikipedia.

So you're going to completely overlook thousands of fans not being allowed to watch the final despite holding tickets and go for the easy Best Korea joke? Okay then.

dokool: I'd have less of a problem if they split off and form their own confederation because then they'd rank somewhere between Oceania and CONCACAF talent-wise, but they're basically holding back the rest of the AFC between a lack of professional domestic leagues and most of the smaller oil fiefdoms essentially having to import their national teams from Africa.

They have decent leagues full of washed up players and coaches, but you're right about the national teams.

IAmRight: Every damn time it's a "oh no, the world is ending because my country didn't get what it wanted!" and every time, people manage to make it work. You don't think that Qatar has every interest in making this a superior World Cup? You think 11 years isn't enough time to get things done? Yeesh.

This.

Cajnik: dokool: I'd have less of a problem if they split off and form their own confederation because then they'd rank somewhere between Oceania and CONCACAF talent-wise, but they're basically holding back the rest of the AFC between a lack of professional domestic leagues and most of the smaller oil fiefdoms essentially having to import their national teams from Africa.

They have decent leagues full of washed up players and coaches, but you're right about the national teams.

Decent, yes, and not without potential, but there is absolutely no reason that, for example, Qatar should have four slots in the Asian Champions League. There's also no reason that Japanese and Korean clubs should be grouped with a club from Uzbekistan in the group stages of the same competition. And don't get me started on the fact that the AFC allows North Korea to participate at all, or that Israel is forced to play in Europe because all of the Arab nations are a bunch of pussies.

Ideally every country west of India and China would split off into the Sand and Frozen Tundra Confederation, and the rest of Asia can move on with their lives. But that won't happen any time soon because it makes too much sense.