Football Isn't Coming Home (to England) ...

Russia Gets 2018 World Cup – Qatar Gets 2022

3:38 pm, Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 by Ed Harrison (writer of Newcastle United Blog)

 

It has just been announced that Russia are the winners to host the 2018 World Cup and a huge surprise in that Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

The World Cup – The Jules Rimet Trophy

As it turns out they were evens favorites late last night, but the fact the Prime Minister Valdimir Putin didn’t arrive in Zurich for the vote, it was thought that Russia must have therefore had little chance. Not so, as it turns out. It’s of course a fantastic win for Russia, and now they will build new stadia, and there will be huge investment made for the World Cup in 8 years time, and the win will certainly help Russia big time in their economic development, not to mention their football development. It will be interesting to see who they will nominate as manager before the World Cup, because they will be expected to perform well in their home country.

The countries who missed out on the 2018 Cup were England, Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands. It’s a completely crushing blow for England, and it will not be possible to put in  another bid until the 2030 World Cup so I’m pleased I watched two group games when the World Cup took place in England in 1966 and some of the games were played at St. James’ Park. And the for the 2022 World Cup,  the winner was announced as Qatar, and that’s got to be monumental surprise, and the USA, Australia, South Korea and Japan all missed out.

It seems the votes again point out that the winners were selected because they can grow the sport around the world, and certainly Russia in particular will benefit greatly from their win. Now there will be second guessing in England, about how the News of the World articles and the BBC Panorama report of last Monday night, effected England’s bid, and even the rioting after the Birmingham City – Aston Villa game last night.

But this is certainly a crushing blow to the birth-place of the sport – England.