I cant really agree
@edd_jedi. I'm not saying Europe/the west has a perfect track record, far from it. But if we go round excusing other people discriminating just cos our history is a bit dodgy then what's the point? We might as well sit back and do FA about Russia invading Ukraine or turn a blind eye to China exterminating its own people in concentration camps.
"You kill gay people, cos they are gay? Well, we don't agree, but we did a fair bit of slavery so fair enough!"
It won't make any difference to Qatar, they are a filthy rich country and a staunch Islamic one. But saying nothing is as good as a tacit acceptance that we don't mind them using slave labour and killing homosexuals.
I am surprised by the last minute alcohol ban. Given FIFA insist, it is literally one of the conditions you MUST accept in order to bid, that ALL income is tax free, and that FIFA bods get priority at traffic lights (heaven forbid a FIFA bod should have to sit in his limo at traffic lights). Surely they have a condition in there that alcohol sales must be allowed, and most likely that their preferred partner gets exclusive rights. It seems an incredible oversight on their part if they don't. Or maybe they were too busy making sure the money was tax free and they all got 7* hotels.
As for Infantino, if I was a member of a European Football Association, I would seriously be speaking to my colleagues about breaking away from FIFA. The corruption and two facedness is beyond ridiculous. We all know Russia and Qatar paid bribes to get the WC, the fact that Infantino is now rubbing people's noses in it and acting like they are whiter than white is a joke.
FIFA is nothing without Europe. Imagine a WC devoid of European sides. Brazil, Argentina and ehhh 30 other sides there to make up the numbers. The viewing figures would be through the roof!
Bar those two South American countries 90% of the marketing revenue comes from Europe.
It also pisses me off that every WC has fewer and fewer European sides in it, yet every time they make up the majority of the sides in the latter stages. I'm all for encouraging other continents but every time Europe gets fewer spots and there really doesn't seem to be any improvement from the ROW. That despite AFCON being played every other year etc.
In my WC Europe should get at least half the slots. TBH 20 for Europe isn't unreasonable. South America has a decent shout for 5 (bar the big 2 we rarely get much, the odd time Colombia/Chile/Uruguay do something, but are they really any better than most middle ranking European sides?), Africa 3 (Nigeria/Ghana/Cameroon etc. again, all no better than a middle ranked European side), Asia 2 (Japan/South Korea and then just cannon fodder), North America 1 (Mexico don't do 'getting out of the group' despite making every WC and the rest are shite) and Australasia ….well, do NZ deserve a spot? (Australia are part of Asia in football terms). The last one can be a play off between NZ, and the four runners up in the other confederations. They are all shite anyway.
And before anyone says I am just trying to look after my own interests, remember, I'm not English, and even if Europe got 20 spots, my lot wouldn't get near qualifying. I'm just tired of seeing UEFA bend over and surrender spots to sides that are visibly massively inferior to dozens of European teams who won't make it.