The FFA – Australia’s Fabulous Football Association – have started to shout. Sometimes, one gets the feeling that people think the louder they scream, the more their argument rings true. Not so. Content still rules over tactics and style. And Australia’s most recent style is unique, to say the least.
There goes a sore loser. Nearly three years after having secured just a single vote (where two were promised “for sure”, and another 10 at least confirmed with hugs between old men, so we are told), Football Federation Australia now wants their money back, says Fox Sports News down-under.
Really? This does raise a few issues, and frankly (perhaps unusually?) none have to do with Qatar.
For one, the question has to be asked whether Australia were forced by somebody to bid. The answer, we think, is a resounding “no”. The follow-up question is, did anybody outside of Australia put pressure on its Government to deliver A$40+ million to produce a bid? The answer is “no”.
Did FIFA or some hidden kabalistic group demand that Australia submit a bid, or was that the FFA’s and Australia’s decision, and if so, did Australia carefully read the bid document? The first answer is “no”, while the second answer is certainly a meticulous “yes”.
Funny thing is this: Qatar, like everybody else, bid for hosting the World Cup based on FIFA’s bid rules and bid documents that they accepted as is (or rather, as was). Qatar won with 14:8 votes (not as Fox News say “with 46 votes” – which goes to show how much Aussie’s Fox cares/knows about FIFA and world football matters).
After they won, UEFA’s Michel Platini came running as some kind of White Knight and declared that the 2022 World Cup should be played in winter. This, after having voted for the Qatar 2022 Summer Bid himself. Go figure.
And despite the fact that inspection documents highlighted the fact that it is indeed bloody hot in the Middle East in summer, 14 of the 22 voting ExCo Members (a couple had been kicked off the body already prior to the vote) voted for Qatar. (Qatar did submit what those who voted for the country said were convincing arguments: cooling technologies, short distances, etc.).
Allegation over allegation was subsequently concocted – and some really creative ones. Some said that Russia made a deal with some evil force and thus won (funny thing that the source of all of the never substantiated rumours came from a holier-than-thou competitor). Others went ballistic over Qatar having used trickery and worse to win the bid (to this day, not a single shred of evidence has been produced by any investigating body, and there were many. Many more than the public knows). Zilch. Nothing. No proof, nor trial. No evidence, nothing.
So what’s next? Try this one. “Maybe we can now screw FIFA by demanding our bid money back (money that FIFA never requested we must invest…). And by doing so, we can maybe create enough mischief for FIFA to kick Qatar’s butt and take away their hosting rights and…. and vote again.” Right. And pigs will fly. Mainly Australian pigs, we think.
What, to the onlooker, was a pretty embarrassing post mortem phase in England, after the country had garnered just two votes in its favour (despite the fact they had the advantage of one ExCo Member), slowly started to fade away. Probably for two reasons: there was never going to be a way to seriously question Russia’s victory, and secondly, some leading figures intimately involved with the bid may have had self-preservation in mind when they decided to stop slinging mud – and simply moved on.
And Australia? The Aussies are an altogether different breed. They were quite upset (as they should have been), just like their American cousins (as they, too, should have been). Losers are entitled to feel unhappy.
But while the US kept focusing on Obamacare and more recently the NSA’s no longer so secret actions (in other words: they had their hands full of real issues), Australia has now emerged as the last bastion of decency (sic!), and the only nation that “demands compensation” for something they screwed up themselves.
What style. Without anybody’s interference, they lost; without anybody forcing them, they bid; without anybody having asked them to bid for a World Cup that they could never win. Not a single European vote came their way. And that would be 8. And without those votes, there could never have been a victory in sight. The ten-hour time difference to Europe was a factor that they apparently forgot to think about.
So, now, after all of that, they want their money back. Why? And based on what? The four seasons? Sure, since there is no other real argument on the table.