So after giving up of FIFA tournaments for the foreseeable future, Wembley has been given the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final! Whose going to plan to get tickets???

 

Scotland and Ireland also get to host 3x group games and 1x last 16 match, with Wales unfortunately missing out!

This is a one-off event to celebrate the 60th "birthday" of the European Championship competition. Other European countries will be hosting the group stages. One group stage in Spain, One in Italy, One in Germany etc etc even Azerbaijan gets to host a group stage.

 

Cities are London, Dublin, Glasgow, Bilbao, Baku, Munich, St. Petersburg, Rome, Copenhagen, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Budapest, and Brussels.

 

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Already announced bidders for 2024 UEFA are from Germany, Netherlands, Turkey.

 

Further possible bids from Italy, Joint bids Estonia & Russia, Scotland & Ireland, Romania & Hungary

As someone who lives in London I'm very happy about this news :D, it's just a shame that the whole tournament can't be staged in England like Euro 96.

As someone who lives in London I'm very happy about this news :D, it's just a shame that the whole tournament can't be staged in England like Euro 96.

 

Looks like we will bid for Euro 2028.

 

I'm definitely going to be trying to get tickets for this regardless, it's too good of an opportunity to miss!

I don't know if anyone has seen the latest news, but what a farce!

 

Garcia report handed in. Fifa present the findings, and claim no misconduct committed. Lots of bad stuff about England. Now Garcia is saying his report has been entirely misrepresented. I've no idea how such a powerful organisation can keep getting away with this. I hope this doesn't just get swept under the carpet.

FIFA simply do not appear even remotely credible when they publish a summary but recurs to publish the whole report. The whole thing is a total farce.

It is farcical but putting everything to one side I actually think all 5 countries gunning for it were terrible options. Australia would have been horrific for European audiences. Japan/South Korea have literally just held one and USA don't call the sport by it's proper name.

 

All things considered I actually wouldn't mind a winter WC. Would be uniquely interesting and the FA has 7/8 years to sort out what to do with PL fixtures.

Edited November 13, 201410 yr by Dobbo

It is farcical but putting everything to one side I actually think all 5 countries gunning for it were terrible options. Australia would have been horrific for European audiences. Japan/South Korea have literally just held one and USA don't call the sport by it's proper name.

 

All things considered I actually wouldn't mind a winter WC. Would be uniquely interesting and the FA has 7/8 years to sort out what to do with PL fixtures.

 

A winter World Cup is disastrous. Whole seasons would be disrupted, not at least thinking about the impact of players playing every couple of days for an intense period of time mid-season. European competitions would have to be moved. It just does not make sense, and it's clear when the bid was 'voted' for, the issue was not thought through. Australia would have been really good, but my understanding is that their government didn't fully support the bid with giving FIFA full reign and that counted against the bid. Thought coming in to the process, Australia were the red hot favourites, and for good reason. Qatar has no football infrastructure, so many laws, basic human rights.. it's just ridiculous the bid was even voted for.

On the plus side the players will already be at full match fitness if they're mid way through a domestic season. They're fully focused and there's none of this "have a month off then turn up for a WC half-arsed" nonsense.

 

Of course I'm not saying the Qatar WC is a good idea, and frankly idiotic of FIFA to "not realise" what the conditions would be like, but really the whole pool of potential candidates for 2022 were ill thought-out. If Australia won the vote it'd also be a winter WC too :heehee:

Edited November 13, 201410 yr by Dobbo

Australia would have been a decent choice. It wouldn't have been ideal for European audiences but that's too bad.

 

FIFA should have a rule that says that, in order to bid, a country must have achieved a minimum number of qualifications. For example, they could say that a country must have qualified for at least one of the last two tournaments at the time bids close. That would have ruled out Qatar immediately.

 

A winter tournament should not be ruled out permanently. That would mean that certain countries could never bid regardless of their footballing achievements. However, any bid should make it clear that it was for a winter tournament rather than the usual June / July dates. They should also put forward outline proposals for how the league programmes etc. could be rescheduled to accommodate the change in dates. The proposal need not go into great detail but it should at least demonstrate that a solution is achievable.

On the plus side the players will already be at full match fitness if they're mid way through a domestic season. They're fully focused and there's none of this "have a month off then turn up for a WC half-arsed" nonsense.

 

Of course I'm not saying the Qatar WC is a good idea, and frankly idiotic of FIFA to "not realise" what the conditions would be like, but really the whole pool of potential candidates for 2022 were ill thought-out. If Australia won the vote it'd also be a winter WC too :heehee:

 

They'll be fully match fit, but I think the tempo of the World Cup would be much lower in general, as players will want to save themselves for the rest of the domestic season. Plus even in the 'winter' the heat will be awful, I think games will be very pedestrianised. That's what I expect will happen. It's just ridiculous it's even got to this stage. The World Cup should not be happening in Qatar at all, for health and safety reasons

Has anyone seen the flight prices for Qatar over £600, by 2022 they probably double, you won't see many British/European supporters out there. Qatar must have been chosen on a whim over the other countries.

It is farcical but putting everything to one side I actually think all 5 countries gunning for it were terrible options. Australia would have been horrific for European audiences. Japan/South Korea have literally just held one and USA don't call the sport by it's proper name.

Come on now, you realize that applies to far more countries than the US, right? Including South Africa who hosted 4 years ago, and Australia who, time zone aside, would've been a great choice for 2022. So what if some countries have another sport they call football, that hardly makes them "terrible options" for hosting. Besides, that didn't stop the US from hosting the World Cup once already, AND the term "soccer" originated in England so lol bye.

 

1994 pretty much birthed the US League and was the highest attended WC ever. So the US hosting it I'd have no problem at all, still feels a little bit soon to go back to them but perhaps in 2030 or something it'd be nice to go back there.

 

Australia would have been the good choice, and they could easily stage a WC in the Northern Hemisphere's summer so there's no problem with the seasons.

 

I think there's a good chance it won't actually be in Qatar in the end. Morocco lost the 2015 African Cup of Nations with just a few months to go, different circumstances but still, and there's a replacement host all ready for that, granted that's a smaller tournament but there's also a lot more time for a replacement host to be ready.

 

Unless they hold it in early May and play mostly late evening fixtures (in itself a logistical nightmare) there isn't really much hope of playing in the summer. I can't see a Winter tournament working at all, but no doubt Sepp Blatter will find a bribe..., I mean way to get it happening.

Qatar has no football tradition and have never even come close to qualifying for a World Cup, that jars with me tbh. The World Cup is at its best when held in countries that love the game (recently in France, Germany and Brazil). That said, its also good that FIFA have given it to countries like USA, Korea/Japan and South Africa.

 

I actually don't mind Russia hosting. They've regularly qualified and have great footballing tradition like most of Eastern Europe. Qatar is a different matter and will be mainly held in one city (like Uruguay 1930) and held in winter. It will be a novelty, but Australia would have been a perfect host imo.

 

Agree that the matches themselves will likely be pedestrian, but Brazil was host this summer and witnessed fantastic matches! On the other hand, South Africa 2010 had ideal football conditions and the matches were largely boring!

Edited November 15, 201410 yr by ML Hammer95

The recent report published stank of corruption too. England and Australia may have attempted to bribe officials but I'm sure Russia and Qatar weren't innocent either! The guy who composed the report has hit out against it too which says it all aha.

Edited November 15, 201410 yr by ML Hammer95

The recent report published stank of corruption too. England and Australia may have attempted to bribe officials but I'm sure Russia and Qatar weren't innocent either! The guy who composed the report has hit out against it too which says it all aha.

 

Of course, the clubs that have been vilified by FIFA are the ones that actually co-operated fully with the investigation. No FA is any saint in this matter, because reading between the lines it seems it's common practcie to offer deal sweetners to gain votes. However Russia have destroyed full servers and computers with information on the matter, and I don;t thnk Qatar commented at all. The report is farcical, no wonder the FBI are investigating.

BUMP:

 

Apparantly FIFA can only chose either November or December for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar according to the head of the governing's body taskforce.

They may shorten the tournament too, cutting rest days and allowing only two weeks preparation beforehand.

 

It could produce some good football in a strange way; the top European based players won't be fatigued, temperatures should be ideal and they won't be travelling very far between venues.