FIFA's ticket to unknown

The World Cup in Russia in 2018 will be spread across by far the biggest country in Europe. Then, four years later, the tournament in Qatar, an oil-rich land of only 1.7 million people, will be the most compact ever.

The selection of the two countries on Thursday by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, surprised the glittering audience of politicians, royalty, celebrities and even a few soccer players gathered in Zurich. It was the first time FIFA had chosen the hosts for two World Cups together.

In its choices, FIFA challenged the history of the game and perceptions of the future. In both countries, there is no existing soccer structure to mount the world’s biggest sporting event, which demands stadiums and extensive public works for 32 countries to play 64 matches. And the vote opened up the field to the former superpower of Eastern Europe and to a rising financial power in the Middle East.

The winning bids were backed by gargantuan budgets. Anyone with an ear to the ground has known for two years that Russia and especially Qatar were spending huge resources from their oil and gas riches to win the monthlong soccer extravaganza. The sheikdom based its bid on a vision of building nine stadiums, air-conditioned by power from the heat of a desert sun.

Many nations bid against them. England, the motherland of Association Football, and the combined bids of Spain-Portugal and the Netherlands-Belgium all sought the 2018 Cup. The United States, Japan, South Korea and another fresh ground for soccer, Australia, bid for the 2022 event.

The ability of Russia and Qatar to outspend them all in the bidding stakes was not necessarily tainted by the accusations of corruption that swirled around FIFA’s executive committee in the last month. Quite possibly the source of those allegations – British newspaper and television reporting – cost England votes because its bid, one of the most appealing in terms of organisation and infrastructure, did not survive the first round of voting.

One of the first actions prompted by the announcement in Zurich was that a plane was scrambled to take Prime Minister Vladimir V Putin of Russia from Moscow to Zurich.

Described as the captain of Russia’s bid team, Putin unexpectedly boycotted the end of the bidding process Wednesday and Thursday, sending a deputy instead. But, he said, should Russia win, he would be in Zurich by the quickest possible route.

It was, it turned out, a clever move. Putin was able to denounce others, notably the English, whose prime minister, David Cameron, lobbied hard in Zurich, for “pressurising” FIFA. He was able to distance himself from what he called the smear tactics of the allegations against FIFA’s committee. And he was able to send a capable first deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, who had an advantage Putin lacks. He could speak, in excellent English, to the committee at the 11th-hour presentation to FIFA.

“Russia has had many tragic days, and a history more tragic than any other in the last century,” Shuvalov told the committee members. “But for 20 years now we are building a new country, and we can achieve that better and quicker with your help.”
The new Russia that was under construction, Shuvalov argued, will overcome its vast territorial distances by offering free transportation to ticket holders. And Russia will not require separate visas for all fans who arrive with a ticket for the games.

No one quite knows whether the final-day presentations achieved votes. The perception is that the 22 FIFA members’ minds were already made up, either through vote trading or through friendships and contacts over many years in what is essentially a private club on a global scale.

The combined bid of Spain and Portugal was reported to have had a mutual-support pact with Qatar. It had guaranteed support from the committee’s Latin Americans.

And in a late play for votes, the Spaniard Angel Villa Llona, a vice-president on FIFA’s executive committee, addressed his fellow members Thursday morning with a backhanded slap at the British news media.

“FIFA is a clean institution,” Villa Llona said. “You are all honest, hardworking people.”

But his passion did not move sufficient votes, and the Spanish-Portuguese presentation was criticised as too long and dull.

David Beckham’s emotional plea on behalf of England failed to sway the decision makers as well. Beckham told the committee of elderly men that his love of soccer was fostered by his grandfather. He described how he had travelled the world and seen what soccer could do for youngsters from the richest to the poorest lands. Now, Beckham said, he wanted to give his sons, and his grandsons, reason to be proud of his generation and the game.

But maybe Sheika Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, the second of the emir of Qatar’s three wives, did manage to move the committee in an address on Wednesday that was stunningly direct.

“I would like to ask you a question,” she began. “When ...” and paused. “When do you think is the right time for the World Cup to come to our region?”

Qatar had many strands to its bid. Its proposal to build the most compact tournament ever, its promise to construct futuristic stadiums that would be dismantled and rebuilt in developing regions, its pledge for an event that would be carbon neutral and not add to the emissions that many scientists say are leading to global warming all pushed the boundaries beyond mere sports.

Thursday’s efforts in the voting chamber, backed by renowned sporting Muslims like Zinedine Zidane, won the hearts and minds of the voters. They trumped South Korea’s bid based on the hope of uniting North and South Korea through soccer. And it beat the United States’ offer of a safe house for the game, unprecedented income and an infrastructure ready to go tomorrow.

FIFA has bought a two-way ticket into the unknown. There may be good cause to challenge the secretive committee in charge of the world game. But there is no doubt now about its willingness to buy into a future for the World Cup that until Thursday nobody foresaw.