the favorites are whomever gives Sepp and his cronies the biggest briefcase filled with cash
if there are any FIFA delegates who operate on the straight and narrow though, supposedly the US presentation today was bad, and Qatar/Japan/Korea were all very strong
the BBC tried to destroy the England bid on monday with the Panorama program, and likely did. Putin not going to Zurich was viewed as a big blow for Russia
If I had to guess, Russia/Qatar
I hope its England obviously, would be a treat to watch them disappoint everyone at home rather than in a foreign country, but I don't see it now
think if it isn't those two above though the only other choice for 2018 is England, and the only other one for 2022 is the US. Australia would be great but if they do it there they can't do China in 2026
interesting article here on the politics of it all,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jamespear...tics_meet.html
Quote:
Ten years ago, I was here in Zurich to report on the 2006 bidding decision. I had covered much of the final month of that campaign, making a film for Newsnight on the closing stages of England's doomed bid. Wherever I travelled and whomever I spoke to, I was told that South Africa had it in the bag. "Sepp Blatter (Fifa president) wants South Africa to win," they all said, "and Sepp Blatter gets what he wants."
In those days I was probably a little more gullible but I happily went along with the popular opinion. Then, late at night on the eve of the vote, it all changed. I was wandering down a corridor of the hotel where the voters were staying when I bumped into one of my best Fifa contacts. Everything had changed he told me. The four Asian members of the executive committee were angry with Blatter about the amount of slots their countries were being given at the next World Cup. They had told him they were switching their support from South Africa to Germany in protest. In one evening, the pendulum had swung away from South Africa. The next day, Germany, with the extra help of Charles Dempsey's failure to vote, went on to win the right to host the 2006 event.
|