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The
scandals unveiled by London’s Sunday Times and the Panorama, broadcast
on BBC on Monday, cost England as it was beaten to the 2018 World Cup
bid by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

It was supposed to
be a return to the “motherland of football” as Joseph Blatter, FIFA
President, said on the podium moments before the envelope of the
winning bid was passed to him. When the winning bid was announced,
there were about eight Russians in the hall with the others in apparent
shock. Russia won against all expectations but it could have been swung
in their favour by the words of Putin, Russia’s President, who on
Wednesday criticised England over the FIFA exposes. “I would like to
note that recently we have watched with disappointment as an obvious
campaign was being unleashed against members of the FIFA executive
committee,” he said. “They are being smeared in dirt and compromised. I
consider it as part of unscrupulous bit of competition in preparations
for the selection of the host-country for the World Cup.”

The politics of the 2018 bid

England was said to
have had the best technical bid but Russia trumped all the stats by
promising to inject over $10 billion to host the world. Russia will
also be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Spain/Portugal bid
President, Angel Villar Llona, in his presentation on Thursday said: “I
love FIFA dearly but those I love the most are my colleagues in the
Exco. Recently we have been criticised by many media outlets.
Unfortunately for them, FIFA is a clean institution.” The defeat will
be made more unpalatable as the England bid had been described by
Blatter as being both excellent and remarkable. But it was not
remarkable enough to be chosen. In revelations after FIFA’s members had
voted in a secret ballot, it emerged that England did not make it to
the second ballot.

Last minute
attempts by Prime Minister, David Cameron, Prince William and David
Beckham to persuade the football’s world governing body executive
members came too late to douse the embarrassments suffered by these
members by the revelations of the BBC and London Times. Amos Adamu and
Reynald Temarii, the two FIFA executive members named in cash-for vote
scandal, had been suspended and fined some sums of money following the
revelations by the London Times that both members were ready to sell
their bidding votes to the highest bidders. There will be
recriminations from the British press but many observers feel that
England shot itself in the foot by being “undiplomatic.”

Qatar trumps the USA

Qatar became the
smallest country to be awarded the hosting rights of a FIFA World Cup
by snagging the 2022 World Cup. The Qatar bid committee used French
football legend, Zinedine Zidane, as a goodwill ambassador and said in
their presentation that the World Cup project of hosting the world in
2022 could help unify the region. There was also the promise to
overcome overwhelming heat by air conditioning the stadia it will
build. Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s bid chairman,
sounding all exultant after the pronouncement said: “Thank you for
believing in change, thank you for believing in expanding the game,
thank you for giving Qatar a chance. We will not let you down. You will
be proud of us, you will be proud of the Middle East and I promise you
this.”

And in what could
be a final word to the backlash that will definitely come forth after
the England snub, Llona had this to say, “You have already heard enough
slander in the media, the bidding process is clean regardless of what
they say.” The world will converge in Russia in 2018. And as the
Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, was handed the World Cup
by Blatter, he celebrated by saying: “You have entrusted us with the
FIFA World Cup for 2018 and I can promise, we all can promise, you will
never regret it. Let us make history together.”

History will definitely be in the making as the Eastern European
giants host the greatest single sport fiesta in the world while Qatar’s
1.7 million people prepare to welcome the world in 2022.