England's failed World Cup 2018 bid assessed

Dec 3 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

After two years of intrigue and political machinations, Russia and Qatar emerged victorious in the bid for World Cups 2018 and 2022. Mark Douglas assesses the fall-out of England’s World Cup disappointment

IN sending the World Cup east yesterday Fifa didn’t just break English hearts, they took a monumental gamble with the future of their competition.

Ignore for a minute the whiff of corruption, collusion and self-interest emanating from the decision to hand Russia and Qatar the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 and concentrate instead on what it means for a tournament already diminished in supporters’ eyes by a disappointing summer.

By turning their back on the traditional Western European heartlands of the game to push forward on new frontiers, Fifa’s 22 wise men run the risk of alienating supporters in football hotbeds like our own, as well as France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Spain.

An idle threat from an embittered Englishman? Not when you consider the huge disparity between travelling support numbers during the World Cups in South Africa and Germany.

Two hundred and twenty thousand travelled from foreign shores to support their team in 2010, compared with over one million in 2006 – a disparity that South African organisers put down simply to geography, and the ease with which supporters could get to a central European venue. Well if they struggled to afford South Africa, how will they ever get their heads around the eye-watering sums that it will cost to scale Russia? Or the trip into the unknown that will be the ultra-expensive Qatar?

Fifa will take a risk on the fact that it won’t matter, and that the enthusiasm of the natives will more than make up for the diminishing visitor numbers from Western Europe. But it is a major gamble that supporters fed on a diet of world-class club football will not simply lose interest in the international game, especially if the football is as dull as it was out in South Africa. No doubt a case could be made that it will invigorate two previously untapped markets – Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Certainly, finance will be no obstacle as the autocratic, oil-rich administrations take unprecedented steps to impress an expectant world.