pishhead
Well-known member
The fact that Fifa would rather go to a corrupt and potentially dangerous Russia speaks volumes about how Fifa members fear our "free" press.
Should we blame the BBC? (Sorry if fixtures)
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Twinkle Toes
Growing old disgracefully
Tyrone Biggums
Well-known member
I really hope the English media go all out now to rip FIFA apart bit by bit.
I know they'll have the support of millions of Aussie football fans who are in the same state of shock and their pommy cousins are.
I know they'll have the support of millions of Aussie football fans who are in the same state of shock and their pommy cousins are.
The question is not whether corruption should be investigated but whether it is a good idea to broadcast the results three days before a vote to host the World Cup in which your host nation is competing. We know FIFA delegates do get swayed late in the day after what happened in the voting for the 2006 World Cup.
Braders
Abi Fletchers Gimpboy
Hotchilidog
Well-known member
- Jan 24, 2009
- 9,120
I don't think the BBC or Sunday Times are to blame. The fact the two least prepared, two most awkward, two least football orientated countries but two richest countries won speaks for itself. We had an excellent bid, as I believe did Spain and Portugal, both great footballing bids, both travel friendly, and both ready, one of them should have won. FIFA couldn't give a shit about football, they are after cash and nice hotel rooms. Australia, the States and South Korea should all feel equally aggrieved about 2022. It's a scandal. But hey if the Russians are willing to let us jet around for FREE then it may still be worth going.
clippedgull
Hotdogs, extra onions
The fact that we went out in the first round suggests that the programme timing was irrelevant. If we had gone out in the last round to Russia then maybe your suggestion would be valid.
No as I have said earlier the timing was right. If we had broadcast the documentary after the event it would have been dismissed as sour grapes. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that the media (BBC & Sunday times) probably had some idea that we had no chance.
Maybe there are more revelations to come.....
This and
This.
Spot on.
Sheebo we shouldn't go crawling to anyone. Especially not to those corrupt tossers, no matter how much we want the world cup.
The reports about the programme may have very slightly pissed off a few Fifa members, but if we had stuck a couple of hundred thousand £ in their pockets I'm sure they wouldn't care in the slightest. Just the fact that Russia and Qatar - two of the richest nations in the world, one of which has zero footballing background, makes it fecking obvious its down to corruption.
Herne Hill Seagull
Well-known member
The truth is we don't know on what basis each member voted and for whom, corrupt motivations or otherwise. But the fact is, every time there's a possibility that the broadcast and/or print media can f*** up our chances, they take it. 20 year old allegations about Bobby Robson's private life on the eve of England flying to Italy in 1990. Sniping about the cost of the Olympics in various media. Now this.
I entirely agree that a free, open, investigative press is a good thing. It helps expose corruption and holds people in public office to account. BUT, these allegations (FIFA bidding process is corrupt shock!!!) are hardly earth-tremoringly surprising. And if they'd held off for, say, three days before screening it, the allegations would still have had to be investigated. Those members would still have had to account for their actions. The role of the free press would have been satisfied, and any damage to the bid, real or imaginary, would not have been done.
So though I doubt Panorama won or lost the bid for us alone, I still say it was sensationalist bollocks of the first order, which told us nothing we don't already know and could only have served to damage our chances, if it did anything. C**ts.
Edit: In answer to Paddy B. You can't dismiss a programme like that as sour grapes and ignore it in FIFA's position. And they'd have known the programme was made and ready to be screened whether we'd won or not. Even less likely to call those grapes sour if we'd actually won the bid - if anything, they'd have had to take the allegations even more seriously, coming as it would have from the media of the winning nation. Never mind.
I entirely agree that a free, open, investigative press is a good thing. It helps expose corruption and holds people in public office to account. BUT, these allegations (FIFA bidding process is corrupt shock!!!) are hardly earth-tremoringly surprising. And if they'd held off for, say, three days before screening it, the allegations would still have had to be investigated. Those members would still have had to account for their actions. The role of the free press would have been satisfied, and any damage to the bid, real or imaginary, would not have been done.
So though I doubt Panorama won or lost the bid for us alone, I still say it was sensationalist bollocks of the first order, which told us nothing we don't already know and could only have served to damage our chances, if it did anything. C**ts.
Edit: In answer to Paddy B. You can't dismiss a programme like that as sour grapes and ignore it in FIFA's position. And they'd have known the programme was made and ready to be screened whether we'd won or not. Even less likely to call those grapes sour if we'd actually won the bid - if anything, they'd have had to take the allegations even more seriously, coming as it would have from the media of the winning nation. Never mind.
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I don't see what going out first has to do with it?
We don't know what each delegate based their vote on so it is impossible to say whether the media scuppered our chances, but I wouldn't put it past some of these delegates to hold a petty grudge.
16bha
New member
Agree, and dont want to be glum, but like hundreds of other institutions you would have to be pretty naiive to think that the corruption will go. The voting system as is will always invite the opportunity for bribery and corruption, and will be open to the biggest bidder. Only solution will be to dismantle FIFA and start again, but who votes for that, the Exec committee? We've created a monster!!
Yes, I have heard this sour grapes theory. Who exactly would compaint of it? And even if they did, so what? "Oh, we can't broadcast after the event, people might call us names!"
Or maybe, just maybe, our media are independent enough to root out corruption without worrying about the consequences. If it was Panorama, The Times, The Sun or even the local village church newsletter that lost us the bid then GOOD. Maybe now the FA and the British Government can set about brining FIFA and cock features Blatter to task without worrying about if it will cost us a World Cup bid.
Herne Hill Seagull
Well-known member
Using what as leverage, Westdene? And on what legal jurisdiction? It's a hermetically-sealed closed shop. The FA is not going to go around trying to 'root out corruption' for fear of pissing off the game's governing body, and the Government have got far worse things to do than go around bothering about that now the bid's gone.
Missing the point again. By all means investigate, but it is the THREE DAYS BEFORE that was an issue. The programme was largely made up of OLD NEWS.
Mackenzie
Old Brightonian
More likely to be the News of the World than either of those institutions.