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FIFA broke English hearts last Thursday when it handed the 2018 World Cup hosting rights to Russia.

The signs that the
England bid had foundered was clear to all discerning followers of
events in London, Zurich and Moscow but the English. Till the very end
they held on to the hope, quite clearly forlorn, that they had it in
the bag.

Their attitude is
the product of the English cast of mind, which believes that the
universe, vast as it is, revolves around London and its environs. It is
like a ninety-year old man who in his prime was the heavyweight boxing
champion of the world believing in his old age that he can take on a
man half his age.

The English forget
that the world of the 21st century is markedly different from the days
of empire, the age of Nelson when it held sway on the minds and affairs
of men. Then, it could go to negotiations or the bargaining table with
swagger and come away successful. Today, the reality is different.
Modern day negotiations are underpinned not by moral purpose but
largely by a bottomless pocket and sheer devilry.

The Russians,
reviled globally today as mafias and deviants understood the score.
They knew the game and were willing to play ball after all, the World
Cup is all about football. While the Russians went into ‘hard’
negotiations with the 24 ‘wise’ men of the exalted FIFA executive
committee, the English resorted to blackmail.

The sting operation
carried out by London’s Sunday Times may have done everyone a world of
good in exposing the corruption and graft that has underpinned FIFA’s
activities in the last decade but from a practical point of view, it
was a strategic blunder.

The English should
ask themselves in terms of returns on investment, whether the heads of
Amos Adamu and Reynard Tenarii presented to them on a platter by the
Times, equates the £15 million they spent on their bid.

In scalping Adamu
and Tenarii, the English thought they were forcing the perceived issue
of corruption among FIFA executive members and thereby knocking the
remaining 22 members into line. They misfired. They forgot the time
honoured rule among cults and fraternities -‘all for one and one for
all.’ In taking on Adamu and Tenarii, they had taken on the entire FIFA
executive committee. They had made them look bad and focused global
attention on them and they were not going to forget that. Last Thursday
was payback time and they did so in spectacular fashion.

An act of hubris

The two votes cast
for England; one of them cast by Geoff Thompson, chairman of England’s
FA underscores the enormity of the angst felt by Sepp Blatter and his
henchmen in the FIFA executive committee.

To hear Andy Anson,
head of England’s bid talk about betrayal surely amuses. Anson, in a
fit of bellyaching after the announcement said he had been assured of
at least six to eight votes.

What naiveté! The
truth is, like the tragic hero in classical Greek tragedy, England fell
to a monumental act of hubris. As if the Times expose was not enough,
the BCC worsened England’s already precarious situation with the
Panorama programme, which was aired on Monday, three days before the
vote. As far as timing goes, it was serious faux pas on the part of the
management of the BBC. If the FIFA officials had intended to overlook
the Adamu/Tenarii embarrassment, the Panorama broadcast proved a strong
disincentive. When you add the fact that FIFA officials love Andrew
Jennings, the producer of the programme, the way cats love mice then
you can understand why England didn’t have a prayer.

For the moment, I
say Goodluck to Russia. Despite giving the world some of the finest
players to have played the game -Lev Yashin, Rinat Dasaev, Igor
Belanov, Oleg Blokhin and Andrei Arshavin – Russia have not hosted the
game. It would be interesting to see what they make of this assignment.

Of course the decision to hand hosting rights to them have not gone
down well with everyone. Doomsday scenarios have already rent the air,
with talk of racism and crime in the society leading discussion board.
Conventional wisdom demands we give the Russians the benefit of doubt.
Remember South Africa and India? Critics said they couldn’t pull off
the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Commonwealth Games
respectively but we know how they went, don’t we?