Saudi Arabia taking over football

[Shogun]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67271423

Sad times

[Gash]

It'll never change as long as major sporting events keep blowing smoke up their arse and taking their money. Then we'll we'll get patronised by organisers and competitors saying that they're raising awareness and helping to change things in the country. Absolute bollocks.

I guess this will also mean another winter World Cup so a six week break in the league at some point.

[CannockPricey]

No surprise and just another reason not to watch any international football. Will require building work on a similar scale to Qatar with I imagine similar consideration given to workers' rights and their health and safety.

What I did learn from that article though is that Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay are all hosting games in 2030. Going to be some travel involved in that. Interested to see how that pans out.

[CannockPricey]

Bit different to world cups in France or Germany etc where you could pretty much react to qualifying results and move round for games. That won't be easy at a tournament spread across six nations in three continents.

[AllyBlue14]

I think Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay are hosting a match each at the start, to commemorate the World Cup centenary, or something like that. Still be a nightmare for the teams involved to have to play one match then fly over and carry on as normal.

They're trying to involve too many countries - even Spain/Portugal/Morocco will be a bit of a logistical nightmare, although in terms of travel times, it's more compact than USA/Canada/Mexico.

Qatar and Saudi have the human rights questions, but at least in Qatar all the matches were pretty local too each other. On an environmental level, the next couple of World Cups are going to be horrendous.

[Shogun]

The farce of 2030 is only happening to skip federations so that Saudi Arabia can host 2034. I'm sure COMNEBOL have benefited financially.

[blueforyou]

2034 Theme tune: Money Money Money

I was looking forward to it being Down Under in Australia - top class hosts for the Women's, great tournament

Did the Arabian knights offer megabucks for Oz to withdraw?

[Robioto]

Another nail in the coffin for my love of top level football.

[wepull]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

[Gash]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

Both financially and the attendances USA 94 was the most successful World Cup ever and I think it still is. Compare that to Gerrard and Henderson etc turning out in front of under 1000 fans for their clubs most weeks.

[Stumpy]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

Football fanatics?
As gash says 625 watched gerrard team last time out
There are teams in the 9th tier that get more.

[Audrey Horne]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

They have less fans at games than English non league games…

[Free Agent]

For example, Sunday church teams

[Cods]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

Football fanatics?
As gash says 625 watched gerrard team last time out
There are teams in the 9th tier that get more.

That may be so, but by the same token USA had a population of 260million+ in 1994, huge tourist numbers, and they had the pleasure of watching the likes of Stoichkov, Klinsman, Maldini, Baggio, Romario, Batistuta, Bergkamp and Amokachi in their prime, some of the best players ever. Their stadiums are huge, Florida alone has half a dozen stadiums with capacity beyond 65,000. They like to put on an big show and make sure it's a success, and for many it was a novelty. Commercialisation is their game, yet even now they're hardly classed as a football loving nation.

Saudi currently have 19million citizens and have to put up with has-beens, or never have beens.

[wepull]

Not in the favour of Saudi getting the wc but is it any different from USA hosting the 1994 wc? I mean at least Saudi folks are football fanatic, can't even say the same for USA in 1994

Both financially and the attendances USA 94 was the most successful World Cup ever and I think it still is. Compare that to Gerrard and Henderson etc turning out in front of under 1000 fans for their clubs most weeks.

I don't think they even had a proper league when the WC was awarded.MLS started post wc-94 and before that they had 3-4 different leagues and attendance wasn't pretty great too. Definitely a much less popular sport compared to other American sports which is definitely not the case in Saudi Arabia. Also USA had not qualified for world cups at least for 30 years before they were awarded the WC, Saudis are far better.

Also WC being successful or not is not the reason to award a country the rights to conduct the event. Qatar was equally dodgy but everyone I know call it one of the best WCs.