United States loses out on bid to host soccer’s premier
event
By: Kerith Gabriel
It appears all the lobbying, glad-handing and promises of immense capital gains from the group presenting the United States bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup fell on deaf ears – or in this case lack of favorable votes.
Four networks, in addition to multiple online outlets Thursday transmitted FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarding Qatar the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup. The announcement concluded nearly a year of exhaustive efforts from Japan, Korea, Australia and the United States to host the world’s premier event in 12 years.
It took four rounds for the FIFA executive committee to rule in favor of Qatar, which knocked off the United States’ bid by a 14-8 decision. Bidding nations needed only 12 votes, making Qatar’s final count arrive by an absolute majority.
What assuredly swayed FIFA execs was Qatar’s $50 billion pledge to develop new infrastructure and stadia if awarded. The country with a population of just 1.6 million still needs to construct 9 of 12 stadiums.
FIFA also awarded Russia the 2018 World Cup over England and joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands.
“I can only surmise that there were other things the committee took into consideration, but this is definitely shocking and in many ways unfortunate,” said Mayor Michael Nutter, who was among a host of Philadelphia sports executives and a packed house for a World Cup viewing party in the city.
The United States will look to resubmit a bid to host the World Cup in 2026.
“It’s clear that there was the possibility of some alliances and the numbers seem to bear that out,” U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati told reporters via conference call on Thursday. “It’s also clear that in the first, second and even the third round there was some tactical voting – groups using a vote or two to make sure someone else wasn’t eliminated which would help later on…It’s politics, it’s friendships and relationships, it’s alliances and it’s tactics. (But) there are far too many permutations, especially with these two World Cups being decided on the same day (to speculate).”
If the United States had been awarded the 2022 World Cup, the 12 host cities would have been selected.
There’s no denying the implication of what a 12-year lead-up to the World Cup would have had on soccer in the United States. It would have sparked improvement in areas that need improvement in an attempt to put the Americans on level terms. Additionally, more exhaustive efforts toward the upgrade of American pro leagues, primarily MLS, a vastly widened national team player pool through continued youth development and regeneration of fresh-faced, but deep pocketed sponsors to a sport that has grown in popularity exponentially in the U.S. since the 1994 World Cup.
