Nigeria Content Online

After
Russia got the nod to host the 2018 World Cup from FIFA’s executive
committee, reactions have been diverse as it has been wide. Some have
castigated the British media for being tactless while some have vented
their spleen on the Russians, and have been labelled as being corrupt
along with all the FIFA executive committee members that voted on the
bids. England captain Rio Ferdinand has led the reaction to the failed
World Cup 2018 bid, describing himself as “gutted”.

Ferdinand wrote on
his Twitter account: “Wow Russia will host the world cup 2018….soooo
gutted. What more could we have done? What did we do wrong?” The Mayor
of London, Boris Johnson, who was part of the official delegation also
followed in voicing his disappointment. “This is a tremendously
disappointing result.

“We put together a
cracking bid, our technical specification was top notch and our
stadiums would have been packed to the rafters. Londoners love
football. This is a blow but we have achieved a great deal with this
bid and we have much to look ahead to.

“We remain 100%
focused on developing London as the most exciting sporting destination
in the world, and we have a lot to offer other countries from putting
together our bid and from planning the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We
will carry on providing a strong voice in football and world sport.”
Martin Peters, of Sky Sports News said: “I’m absolutely gutted. I’m
sure the boys of 66 would have loved to have it back here and they’ll
all be really upset.” Former Football Association chief executive Mark
Palios though disappointed believes the bid team did their absolute
best in the circumstances.

“The bid team
themselves did a fantastic job. They put forward the best case they
could put forward and it does no discredit to them the fact we haven’t
won it. It’s deeply disappointing for this country.” Former England
skipper Alan Shearer told BBC Radio Five Live: “I don’t think anyone
could have done any more, everyone’s worked very, very hard but at the
end of the day, it’s not been successful. If you try your best at least
you can sleep at night.

“I was hoping I might see a World Cup in my lifetime in England. I wasn’t born the last time we had one in ‘66.

“It’s unfortunate,
it’s sad, it hurts, but you have to congratulate the winners and Russia
have been winners today – and Qatar – so well done to those guys, I’m
sure they’ve worked very hard, but it’s disappointing from my point of
view.

“Everyone was
really happy and really confident with the bid that we put in; we don’t
feel as though we could have done any more.

“Everyone has
worked tirelessly and for the Prime Minister and Prince William to do
what they have done, we really couldn’t have done any more.” CEO of the
England bid, Andy Anson said “I’m just gutted. We were quietly
confident we’d go all the way.” Prime Minister David Cameron added: “It
is bitterly disappointing. I think according to FIFA we had the best
technical bid, the best commercial bid.

No-one could
identify any risks coming to England. It turns out that’s not enough.”
The Daily Mirror rhetorically asked on its front page: “Russia, a Mafia
state rotten to core with corruptions. Qatar, a medieval kingdom with
no freedom of speech. Both are swimming in oil money.

How on earth did
they persuade the dodgy fat cats of FIFA to give them the World Cup?”
The back page has a picture of CAF President, Issa Hayatou, who is said
to be the only man (other than the FA’s Geoff Thompson) who voted for
England despite being one of the men named in Panorama’s probe.

The front page of
The Guardian’s sport section had just a picture of Joseph Blatter
holding the World Cup with a header – “The man who got what he wanted.”
Russia’s 2018 World Cup bid chief Aleksey Sorokin revealed that the
most important condition to win had been hard work for a year and a
half, providing numerous presentations, both personal and for different
football confederations. “Our goal for the final presentation was to
really tell how we felt about the idea of a bid, rather than discuss
the specifics of our bid.” Russia’s FIFA member Vitaly Mutko compared
winning the right to host the 2018 World Cup to the fall of the Berlin
Wall.

Mutko said: “Twenty
one years ago the Berlin Wall was broken. Today we can break another
symbolic wall and open a new era in football together.

“Russia represents
new horizons for FIFA, millions of new hearts and minds and a great
legacy after the World Cup, great new stadiums and millions of boys and
girls embracing the game.

FIFA’s president Sepp Blatter expressed satisfaction with the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process.

“We will travel to two completely new countries. There has never been a World Cup in Russia or elsewhere in Eastern Europe.”.

“Additionally, nations from the Middle East and the Arabic world have long been waiting to get the chance to host the World Cup.

“This being said, I’m clearly a satisfied man at the moment.
Football is moving in the right direction and these decisions make me a
happy FIFA president.”