2034 WC to be Held in Saudi Arabia after Australia Pulls out

Florida Man said:
Too expensive for them. Bribe inflation and all.
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They are dirt poor. I was there as a humanitarian and their medical equipment is old Soviet stuf from 1980ish. Computers are old x286, x386 not even fecking Pentium 1.
It was like going 30 y back in time.
 
People need to get their heads out of the sand.
What! Its someones else's head.
 
Like F1 I'm at the point where I barely give a shit anymore. Money was always there but now it's taken over, and corrupt fecks like Infantino are just doing whatever they want without consequence.
 
This has seemed inevitable for many years. The future of the World Cup seems to be a procession around various wealthy dictatorships with the occasional visit to Europe to save some face and the continuing attempt to break into the US sports market. It will be a first in that fans can’t even visit two of the cities of the host country unless they belong to a particular religion.
 
MoskvaRed said:
This has seemed inevitable for many years. The future of the World Cup seems to be a procession around various wealthy dictatorships with the occasional visit to Europe to save some face and the continuing attempt to break into the US sports market. It will be a first in that fans can’t even visit two of the cities of the host country unless they belong to a particular religion.
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Restrictions on which fans can attend WCs aren't new.

For WCs in the Europe and the US, you can forget about a large proportion of fans from the Global South being allowed visas and permits to attend such tournaments.
 
Messi's and Ronaldo's WC that they won't even play in. Infantino finishes his dictator trifecta.
 
Eric_the_Red99 said:
The global economy is, unfortunately, dependent on Saudi oil, and so boycotting it isn’t a realistic option, especially as most other fossil fuel exporters are just as bad or worse. But it’s frankly daft to say that just because we buy their oil we should be happy when they buy up and corrupt football and other parts of our culture. The global economy wouldn’t collapse if FIFA was less corrupt and stopped giving these countries World Cups in exchange for shed loads of cash in brown envelopes.
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We dont need to be dependent on fossil fuels, we choose to be.

Renewable energy and changes to the way we live (public transport for example) would greatly reduce the need for oil.
 
RedDevil@84 said:
Anyone wants to boycott the US WC for not having gun laws, racism in policing, allowing people to die because of costly health insurance and medical procedures, exporting obesity to Mexico and all around the world, multiple wars resulting in instability and creation of huge terrorist groups, support of Israel led genocide and hundreds of other things in last 7 decades?
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dont be silly. None of that harms people that look like us.
 
adexkola said:
Restrictions on which fans can attend WCs aren't new.

For WCs in the Europe and the US, you can forget about a large proportion of fans from the Global South being allowed visas and permits to attend such tournaments.
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Those are essentially financial restrictions. In practice, I doubt there are many fans from the Global South with enough money to travel to Europe for 2-3 weeks who can’t get a visa. The Saudi example is more like putting Rome or Canterbury off limits to a certain category of fan who are already in the country. It doesn’t particularly bother me but, for a global event, it’s a bit weird for the host (and a host where there’s not much to see frankly) to bar entrance for many visiting fans to two of its most historic cities. They’ll have to make do with mindless consumerism in Riyadh or hope that Line (or Cube) ever gets built.
 
You can’t say they don’t deserve it, the amount of money they have put into developing football in recent years, compared to other developing football nations.
 
Brilliant. Feck morals, can't wait for western countries to get on their high horse just before the tournament as well.
 
From football point I am mad that the corruption has taken over, but then we saw that even before here in Europe with Ceferin and Platini before.

From moral point of view, lack of human rights(even that is overrated, considering democracy is even worse problem in Europe by the looks of it) isn't any worse than rest of the world who supports genocide and racism, so it's pretty hypocrtical to want this to be held in Europe or USA, while criticising Saudis at the same time. cnuts, all of them.
 
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Will probably end up being brilliant like Qatar despite the obvious moral issues at hand.
 
Fridge chutney said:
This is truly a pathetic comment.
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But you can see where he’s coming from - zero pressure from the West to restrain Israel from annihilating Gaza with 4,000 women and children dead (and counting). But we can feel good wearing rainbow bands and complaining about the Saudis making women cover up.
 
MoskvaRed said:
But you can see where he’s coming from - zero pressure from the West to restrain Israel from annihilating Gaza with 4,000 women and children dead (and counting). But we can feel good wearing rainbow bands and complaining about the Saudis making women cover up.
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I absolutely do not. Many slaves will die to build a world cup hosted in a country where it is illegal to be homosexual and where women's rights are severely restricted. That is not a thing to celebrate.
 
Fridge chutney said:
I absolutely do not. Many slaves will die to build a world cup hosted in a country where it is illegal to be homosexual and where women's rights are severely restricted. That is not a thing to celebrate.
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It’s not a thing to celebrate but we are watching ethnic cleansing on live TV by our strategic partner in the region. How do we stand and pontificate about gay rights while children are being dug out of the rubble of bombed out apartments and hospitals?
 
Scottynaldinho said:
Every Western country has trade with Saudi. You fill up the gas every other morning supplied by the Saudis. Why is there an issue if a football World Cup is hosted there?
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What percentage of the West's Oil comes from Saudi Arabia do you reckon?
 
I’ll probably boycott this too. Qatar I was ok with but have little/no time for the Ibn Saud lot.

Edit: it is 10 years away and my love for football is hanging by a thread so there’s a realistic chance I won’t even be into the sport then anyway.
 
Bit boring to have another Arab country hosting - Qatar was good, look forward to Morocco but would have preferred a different region for the next one

Oz would have been good

Shame China haven't managed to sort their shit out by now

I'll still watch it of course
 
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To those making a fuss just because it is the Saudis and those who think football is only European and South American, get a grip.
Pardon me, I couldn't think of way to sound more polite. Football is a global sport, stop banging on about football heritage. You don't have to be the best to host, but you should have a decent track record to host so as to maintain a good quality of football. Saudis have more often than not qualified for the world cup on sporting merit for quite awhile now. Many other host nations have not, like when the US first hosted it(yes they were in the in the early editions but only be it wasn't a "real" world cup yet). I am all for the US in the next edition as they have been doing pretty well for sometime now.

I am not too please with the Saudis winning the hosting rights as there is a feeling that they have bribed their way to it. I have not properly researched so I may be wrong but that's the impression I get. This seems like the only good reason to be displeased. Also it was only recently we had a world cup in the same region, would much prefer it to be some other part of the world.

For those who think it shouldn't be the Saudis holding a world cup because of human rights etc., you may have a point. But my personal opinion is that sports is a platform for unity or at least platform to learn/understand each other, no matter how much or little that is. I am aware sports and politics are not completely separate, especially our beloved football, there are times where matches/teams/players almost represent a political struggle(Socrates/Corinthians comes to mind). I believe sports is a platform and we should let field take stage. What I mean is Russians or Ukrainians, Israelis or Palestinian should all play.
Let us support the champions of our choice(political or sporting), after all we are free to jeer our opponents. All the warring and boycotting can be done outside of sports.

I hope I've articulated well, feel free to poke holes at it, I may not reply but I will definitely and might just reevaluate my beliefs.
 
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RuudVNistelrooy10 said:
To those making a fuss just because it is the Saudis and those who think football is only European and South American, get a grip.
Pardon me, I couldn't think of way to sound more polite. Football is a global sport, stop banging on about football heritage. You don't have to be the best to host, but you should have a decent track record to host so as to maintain a good quality of football. Saudis have more often than not qualified for the world cup on sporting merit for quite awhile now. Many other host nations have not, like when the US first hosted it(yes they were in the in the early editions but only be it wasn't a "real" world cup yet). I am all for the US in the next edition as they have been doing pretty well for sometime now.

I am not too please with the Saudis winning the hosting rights as there is a feeling that they have bribed their way to it. I have not properly researched so I may be wrong but that's the impression I get. This seems like the only good reason to be displeased. Also it was only recently we had a world cup in the same region, would much prefer it to be some other part of the world.

For those who think it shouldn't be the Saudis holding a world cup because of human rights etc., you may have a point. But my personal opinion is that sports is a platform for unity or at least platform to learn/understand each other, no matter how much or little that is. I am aware sports and politics are not completely separate, especially our beloved football, there are times where matches/teams/players almost represent a political struggle(Socrates/Corinthians comes to mind). I believe sports is a platform and we should let field take stage. What I mean is Russians or Ukrainians, Israelis or Palestinian should all play.
Let us support the champions of our choice(political or sporting), after all we are free to jeer our opponents. All the warring and boycotting can be done outside of sports.

I hope I've articulated well, feel free to poke holes at it, I may not reply but I will definitely and might just reevaluate my beliefs.
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You tell people to 'get a grip' for criticising Saudi's bid, but then say your impression is 'they have bribed their way to it' while admitting you have 'not properly researched this', reflecting your own apparent biases.
I think the heritage argument is the weakest against any team hosting the tournament if you're trying to grow the sport. The human rights issue will be most cited, but the practicalities of the weather and infrastructure of the country are serious practical barriers.
 
RuudVNistelrooy10 said:
To those making a fuss just because it is the Saudis and those who think football is only European and South American, get a grip.
Pardon me, I couldn't think of way to sound more polite. Football is a global sport, stop banging on about football heritage. You don't have to be the best to host, but you should have a decent track record to host so as to maintain a good quality of football. Saudis have more often than not qualified for the world cup on sporting merit for quite awhile now. Many other host nations have not, like when the US first hosted it(yes they were in the in the early editions but only be it wasn't a "real" world cup yet). I am all for the US in the next edition as they have been doing pretty well for sometime now.

I am not too please with the Saudis winning the hosting rights as there is a feeling that they have bribed their way to it. I have not properly researched so I may be wrong but that's the impression I get. This seems like the only good reason to be displeased. Also it was only recently we had a world cup in the same region, would much prefer it to be some other part of the world.

For those who think it shouldn't be the Saudis holding a world cup because of human rights etc., you may have a point. But my personal opinion is that sports is a platform for unity or at least platform to learn/understand each other, no matter how much or little that is. I am aware sports and politics are not completely separate, especially our beloved football, there are times where matches/teams/players almost represent a political struggle(Socrates/Corinthians comes to mind). I believe sports is a platform and we should let field take stage. What I mean is Russians or Ukrainians, Israelis or Palestinian should all play.
Let us support the champions of our choice(political or sporting), after all we are free to jeer our opponents. All the warring and boycotting can be done outside of sports.

I hope I've articulated well, feel free to poke holes at it, I may not reply but I will definitely and might just reevaluate my beliefs.
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They've been bombing and starving yemeni civilians for 8 years, they are also killing them on the 2 countries' border, they are oppressing women, LGBT+ people, major human rights issues, they are sentencing minors to death, and chopping up journalists into pieces if they criticise them.

EDIT: they are also sentencing their own people to death for retweeting/liking tweets that criticise the government
 
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Maybe this belongs in the weird feelings thread, but I'm strongly against any nation-state (authoritarian or not) defacto owning a football club. Still, I'm perfectly fine with nearly any country hosting a World Cup. The moralistic arguments are weird since the US is about to host its second World Cup, and this country is an absolute mess.
 
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