UNTOLD STORY OF ENGLAND'S 2018 WORLD CUP BID

This is a guest report. Wonderful having a great report on my small blog! Hurray!! Sure, a must read.

FOULING THE REFEREE:

As the fallout from the decision to award the hosting rights to Russia and Qatar for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, there has been a lot of crying and whining from the English bid team and their cry baby media who felt their bid was better than everyone else and FIFA should have given it to them without any questions asked. Why did they think it was all theirs to begin with when other countries were also competing for the same hosting rights.

Why do their media think its okay to slander people's character out in the open and expect those same people to vote for them in return? I just didn't see that happening and it was evident with the way the voting turned out in the end. Not only England was disgraced, they were also humiliated and annihilated by an electorate, their own media were busy attacking every day, calling them all sorts of names.

Gbenga Subair...author

No matter how much ill feelings they had towards the FIFA Ex-Co members, these guys are human beings and they have every right to defend themselves against allegations which the Sun Times, BBC and others was leveling against them. This amounted to character assassination in the public view and they knew there was going to be huge repercussions for what they were doing.

FAILURE FROM DAY ONE ON A RACIST CARD:

The English bid has been in controversy right from the beginning when it launched its bid for 2018/22 World Cup last year in May 2009 at Wembley Stadium in London. In attendance, was Richard Barnbrook, a member of the British National Party (BNP), a racist and fascist party known for their Anti-Immigration views, bigotry and biased attitudes towards foreigners and other people from different backgrounds who live in England. The English bid denied it at first on how he got invited in the first place and he was able to sit alongside notable guests like Gordon Brown, British PM at that time, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and others.

They eventually apologized in the end when it became world news that their bid had such a guest in attendance and other bidding countries were going to use it against them. This has been one of the many bad missteps and bad moves they've had to deal with since last year and it seem they could never shake it off. Just when you thought the English bid was gaining ground, something was always about to happen, which was going to have an adverse effect on their bid.

GOOD BID BUT BAD CHARACTER:

The English bid may have been good in terms of technicality and other requirements FIFA asked for, but it was also facing a challenge from their fellow European countries who were also bidding for the same World Cup rights and were not backing down without a fight which went down to the very end as we saw on voting day in Zurich. As much as the English thought some of their bidding rivals would withdraw and leave the bidding to them only, it only got worse as it intensified with each bidder courting every FIFA Ex-Co member for their elusive votes and to award them the rights for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

The English found this as a challenge and very difficult to deal with because for every FIFA Ex-Co member they met with, the Russians, Holland-Belgium, Spain-Portugal also met with the same people and the process to secure votes became even much tougher. It was the reason why they were bidding for the 2022 event in case they didn't get the 2018 WC. Once Europe, led by Michel Platini started saying the World Cup must come back to Europe after the 2014 WC in Brazil, they knew their chances would be very slim for 2018 due to the stiff competition they were getting especially from the Russians and others.

HOW NOT TO BID:

The Russians were ready for this World Cup right from the get go and I've gotten to respect the way they operate. They don't play around and they've learned the art of deal making, lobbying and doing whatever it takes to make sure they come out on top. The Russians matched England toe-for-toe in everything and vowed they would win which was why the English started using the BBC, the Sun Times and other media outlets, to run stories on how racist they are in Russia and how bad their fans are when it comes to black players playing in their league. The Russians fought back and were unwilling to back down without a fight till the end. People also seem to forget some of the FIFA Ex-Co members from Spain, Japan, Belgium, Korea, Qatar, Russia, all these countries were also bidding for the World Cup and they would rather support their own bid than to give their votes to England with nothing in return or no matter how good the English bid was.

STINGING ADAMU AND TEMARII:

Nobody in their right mind among the FIFA Ex-Co members was going to support England like that. The English knew this from the get go but choose to behave like as if they weren't aware of the whole bidding process and what it took to secure the votes they needed.
This put them in a no win situation to secure votes because of their bad relationship and what their media have been doing from day one. The only trump card they had left was to run a sting operation on any vulnerable FIFA Ex-Co members they could find and they found one in Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii.

The English bid was part of this sting operation, but claimed innocence because they use their own media to do their dirty work anytime they are lobbying for any events. The BBC did the same thing when they were bidding for the 2012 Olympics. They were hoping this sting operation would change the tide towards them and the world cup would be given to them, as it will put the pressure on FIFA. But instead the whole sting backfired on them because they were not clean themselves.

STINGING SPAIN AND QATAR:

Did they expect by calling other members names, slandering them in public, accusing Spain and Qatar of vote collusion, they were going to get votes from these guys? Are the English clean themselves? Can they explain to us how many people they tried to bribe? instead of accusing others of doing the same thing? They kept talking about how good their bid was, but in 1999 when they were bidding for the 2006 World Cup, they also only got two votes. The same votes they got on Thursday. It was so bad, they could not even get any votes from the other countries who were not even bidding for this world cup especially from their European neighbors. If you can't even get votes in your own backyard, you are doomed to begin with. This was their problem and instead of admitting it, they are still whining and calling everyone names for their own shortcomings.

STINGING TEIXEIRA AND HAYATOU:

It's sad to see the English bid whine, cry and point fingers at others when they allowed their own media to hijack their bid and use it for their own personal vendetta to settle scores against the same very people they were courting for their votes. Did they expect they would get anything from the likes of Jack Warner, Ricardo Teixeira, Issa Hayatou and others they were slandering, abusing and calling names for being corrupt? No way and no human in their right mind would have voted for England even if they wanted to. This was payback time and they deserved it. It's funny how the same Sun Times who were busy calling FIFA all sorts of names decided to take out a section in their newspaper on voting day, pleading to FIFA to bring the World Cup to England and how important the WC would be to them or how they kept saying Amos Adamu would have voted for them. But do they remember they ran the sting operation on him that got him banned by FIFA.. Too little to late...

HOW HAVELANGE WAS STUNG FOR YEARS:

Ever since João Havelange defeated Stanley Rous of England for the FIFA Presidency in 1974, the English media have been having a fit ever since over that loss. They haven't recovered from that loss because they feel they should be making decisions on football related matters as we see from the body called IFAB. Who are allowed to change rules of the game, a body that doesn't reflect the diverse culture that plays the game in all parts of the world. During Stanley Rous reign in FIFA, it was run like a Euro-centric football organization with no inclusion from other parts of the world. The feel for entitlement and attacking other members will be their undoing for many years to come. They haven't seen anything yet.

SOUTH AFRICA’S TURN:

This is also payback for the bad media blitz and negativity they ran on South Africa especially with months leading up to the world cup and before. The hateful writing, biased reporting, fictional news they were creating to paint the African Continent in a bad light, the rubbish they were writing after the attack on the Togolese team at the border in Angola, their EPL managers talking crap about the ANC and Africa, their vicious attacks and media biases, every time the African Cup of Nations was coming up and how angry they were when they have to release players for the tournament, calling for the World Cup to be taken away from South Africa and many more. Yet, they wanted help from the same continent to vote for them. No way... The English media are very evil, vindictive and it reflects the type of people they are when they don't get their way. It's unfortunate that despite their bid being so good, their bid were also handicapped by a media that was going to hijack it from the very beginning for their own selfish reasons. Surprising they didn't see that or they were that blind to even notice it.
HOW THEY STUNG NIGERIA TOO:

Have they forgotten the stories they wrote when Nigeria hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1999? The stories of not wanting their players to get sick with cholera and other diseases in Nigeria, how they prevented Michael Owen and other top players from coming with the English team because he and others might get sick, David O'Leary and other EPL managers talking rubbish at that time, have they forgotten?

How their media blamed Nigeria when Man U came to Nigeria for a friendly match with Portsmouth and Wayne Rooney got sick with a stomach virus, the news was flashed to every news wire, media outlets and news agencies worldwide, Their media blitzed on Nigeria when they were bidding against Scotland for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and how they portrayed Nigeria as unsafe, crime ridden, corrupt and many more. Their atrocities are long and it finally caught up to them in the end. You cannot be bad and expect to get away with it. Treat people with respect, dignity the way you want to be treated and you will see the results.

HOW TO BE A GLOBAL CITIZEN:

Instead of attacking Russia and Qatar, they can take a cue from Qatar's approach where they lined up an all star cast from Roger Milla, Ronald De Boer, Bora, Alex Ferguson, Zidane and others who brought dignity, panache, emotion and spirit to their bid. If you watch the video presentation the Russians and Qatar showed, the video was a masterstroke for both countries. Everybody around the world could relate to those videos and that was what sealed it for them in the end. Human relations and ever lasting friendships are one of many attributes needed to navigate the world of international politics. Hope they do some soul searching on why everyone including their fellow Europeans turned on them at a critical moment when they needed them for help. Laws of Average evens out.

Gbenga Subair

Media Manager

Futbol World Reports.USA