So our world cup bid has been "significantly harmed"

i'm struggling with this idea that the fa's over-arching role and status within the global football community is as being poorly regarded by (some of) its peers tbh. i mean, easy enough to imagine that might be true of course - and vice versa. but throughout the entire membership of fifa? seems a bit fanciful to me.

Originally Posted by Ginners

that would be handy. whats so nice about oman then? do they pronounce it oh-man?

well to get there you have to drive through real desert and it was sunrise. most beautiful thin i've ever seen tbh. i'm going again in a few weeks so i'll take some pictures. lots of camels too.

ah seems to be some sort of colluding between spain and qatar including a note passed round or something

Originally Posted by Sloane

ah seems to be some sort of colluding between spain and qatar including a note passed round or something

probbly just an inquiry

it would be £#%&!ing mental if Spain + Portugal were allowed it. Spain had it in '82 and Portugal the Euros in '04.

FIFA said they wouldn't even entertain bids from 2 countries if a bid from one nation was good enough.

England could host it tomorrow, and so probably could Russia.

Originally Posted by Tierra Del Fuego

it would be £#%&!ing mental if Spain + Portugal were allowed it. Spain had it in '82 and Portugal the Euros in '04.

FIFA said they wouldn't even entertain bids from 2 countries if a bid from one nation was good enough.

England could host it tomorrow, and so probably could Russia.

aren't more than half of russia's supposed grounds not even built yet?

Originally Posted by Sloane

aren't more than half of russia's supposed grounds not even built yet?

some of our supposed grounds aren't built yet. New Ashton Gate etc... but we could do it with the ones already built. As could Russia. Just bolt a few seats in with back support instead of the 'European' flat seat jobby.

If Russia gets it, Poland and Ukraine in 2012 will be well in the £#%&!ing spotlight with mental mobs travelling from all over Central and Eastern Europe.

All the bids tbf are decent, its just FIFA are utter @#%&!s making and breaking rules as they go.

2022 is the bid that'll be more talked about imo anyway.

Qatar in June ffs, do me a favour.

when all else fails, resort to good old-fashioned sycophancy

England's 2018 World Cup bid team have taken the unusual step of writing at length to each member of the Fifa executive committee, in an attempt to distance the bid from corruption allegations in the British media.

The letter declares England 2018's "solidarity and support" for Fifa's response to newspaper allegations; highlights "representations" to the BBC over a forthcoming Panorama programme it fears could fatally undermine England's chance of winning the bid; and refers to the two executive committee members who have been provisionally suspended as "our friends".

Bid insiders said the letter, which was delivered by hand over the weekend to the committee members who will decide the destination of the 2018 World Cup on 2 December, represents a calculated risk in aligning England 2018 so closely with a process that is now open to question, leaving it open to criticism from the media.

But England 2018 believes it has no other option. Initial hopes that substantive Sunday Times allegations would not lead to a backlash faded as the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, and other key figures criticised the methods employed by the press.

England 2018 executives hope that by setting out their position so baldly they will be able to shift the focus on to Fifa's technical reports, which are due to be delivered this week and which are expected to show the English bid in a good light. England 2018's final presentation in Zurich on 2 December will involve the prime minister, David Cameron, David Beckham and Prince William and it will state a case for a commercial bonanza to benefit football around the world.

The two-page letter, seen by the Guardian, was sent to the 21 executive committee members (excluding the suspended pair and England's Geoff Thompson) who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts. It is strongly supportive of the "appropriate" and "robust" action taken by Fifa in provisionally suspending Amos Adamu of Nigeria and the Oceania representative Reynald Temarii while its ethics committee carries out an investigation into allegations that they offered their votes in exchange for funding of sports projects.

The ethics committee will deliver its verdict on those allegations on Wednesday, together with others against four Fifa officials and claims that Qatar's 2022 bid and Spain/Portugal's 2018 bid agreed to trade votes, in breach of Fifa rules.

The letter adds: "At the same time your colleagues and our friends are facing investigation by the ethics committee and are rightly entitled to a fair hearing." The letter was signed by Thompson, who is chairman of the bid, and the bid's international president, David Dein.

It goes on to "alert" executive committee members that the Panorama programme, which is due to be broadcast days before the vote, "appears in part to be raking over allegations some of which are up to 10 years old and have already been formally dealt with by Fifa and the Swiss courts".

The letter attempts definitively to distance the bid from media investigations: "We hope England's bid will not be judged negatively due to the activities of individual media organisations, regardless of one's views of their conduct. We hope you appreciate we have no control over the British media."

Dein and the England 2018 chief executive, Andy Anson, recently met the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, and head of sport, Barbara Slater, over the Panorama documentary, which they fear could tip the balance conclusively.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...world-cup-fifa

World Cup in danger of being overshadowed by Wimbledon SHOCKER!

Fifa's inspectors have queried whether the Wimbledon tennis tournament would have an impact on England staging the 2018 World Cup

Wimbledon usually takes place at the same time as the latter stages of the World Cup and inspectors have raised the issue of whether it would impact on England hosting the tournament.

The report states: "It is a Fifa requirement that no other major sporting event is hosted in a host city during the event period and the fact that the Wimbledon tennis championships take place in London during late June/early July could have an impact on the public attention given to the World Cup."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...516336,00.html

Jack Warner attacks the BBc over Panorama programme:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9217976.stm

I can only assume there's further revelations about him being a lying, thieving, embezzling, touting corrupt @#%&! then.