Hi Rob
Seems it was more than an extra point ! I was more like Blatter trying to justify after the fact.
Any preference for a new region, should;d have been made very clear from the beginning and the weighting attached explained. I believe England actually asked the question about new regions and were led to believe that no preference was in place.
Furthermore FIFA seem to have disregarded their own country assessments with regard to much of the criteria, which is why the whole bidding process has been brought into question. In my case it isn't a knee jerk reaction against about the region - far from it. Hence my suggestion that Gulf World Cup would have been a far stronger bid in terms of logistics, financing and legacy - Gulf politics not withstanding!!
I would like to think that the Qatar World Cup is for the Arab world, but can't help being a little cynical here - more like one man's ego trip, "I can therefore I will".
Similarly the plans for the Qatar world cup appear to be ever changing: their own assessments of a/c stadiums suggest it may not be possible, the modular plans are now questioned and the timings may change (summer to winter). This is not fair on other bidding nations. Message seems to be 'Win the bid Qatar and sort it all out later."
Most of hotels planned are the higher end of the market - and will come with a price tag, there is also limited flights into Qatar. Yes you can commute from UAE/Bahrain, but then less point of having it in Qatar?!
Fair point about the ability of the fan to see a couple of games in a day - a positive for sure.
Is there going to be a legacy after Qatar - lots of people suddenly taking up the sport, first class facilities etc. Already football is the most popular sport in the region and there are already a number of great facilities eg. Aspire in Qatar.
There may be 2 billion people within 4 hours of Qatar, but when evaluated I assume that includes over 1 billion Indians - not a football supporting nation aside from the Goans.
New regions like Russia makes sense - aside from travelling issues for fans, it is a chance to spread football into regions of Russia and expose those regions to the world and establish world class stadiums across the country.
Australia would have made more sense - geographically isolated - but an opportunity to promote football and support the A league in a sport's mad country, where stadiums would be used afterwards etc.
For Australia to get so few votes is surprising and has to be questioned - lets see how many who voted are 'clean' after the ongoing investigations......
I don't question Qatar's ability to host the tournament, they will throw as much money at it as they can (which is considerable) but ...... Qatar will make it work - but it shouldn't be about making it work, but about what is best for football: its fans, the players and the impact and legacy the competition can have.
I suspect FIFA doesn't see what's best for football in quite the same way!
