24 Feb 2015 17:02:40
This world cup in the winter is a joke if they cannot stage it in June July they should not have been selected this stinks to the high heavens, a blind man on a galloping horse can see this what r the European league's going to do keep going with what they've got probably the best way forward not good for us I'd say but all the rivals will be in the same boat.
24 Feb 2015 18:43:02
Money talks. Nice watches and other brown envelopes get what you want these days
24 Feb 2015 23:22:45
What are the European leagues going to do? This is the world cup not the European championships. The kick off times are already arranged to suit European tv audiences at the detriment of the locals in the actual host country. So what if the European leagues have to suffer for one year?
25 Feb 2015 00:35:32
Well Hounsred you are supposed to be a fan of liverpool so therefore you are meant to care about them.I just don't see the sense in this it will not suit anyone maybe Russia at a guess .I can see a record amount of withdrawals from squads for this 1, I would advocate country's to boycott the whole tournament r send semi professional players to represent all nations unhappy with the process of selecting a country that can not put the tournament on at the desired time even after medical professionals had advised the committee that it would be impossible to stage the world cup in June July which should have main criteria for selection, and whether you like it r not its the club's in Europe who pay the best players in the world a lot of money therefore imo fifa have taken the rights away from employees and employers to perform business.All clubs should have more say on these decisions maybe even a representative on the committee.
25 Feb 2015 01:37:49
I think hosting the tournament far out weighs the locals ( which there are very few of)detrimental viewing times.
the point is, it shouldn't be in this position, they never bid on a winter Olympics ( nobody did) the whole thing is a farce.
25 Feb 2015 08:04:11
They said in the original bid that it would be staged at the normal time.That is what annoys me.
I am not that arsed about it being moved to be honest.
As long as there is some football to be watched. I'll watch it.
25 Feb 2015 09:17:00
No problem with moving it but two issues:
1. It's not fair that they get to move it when they bid for a summer tournament. Summer tournament also = winter in Australia, so if they knew November/December was an option, what could they have done? With this decision, the only fair way forward is to re-do the bidding process
2. Fine to say that it's not the European cup it's the world cup and should suit the world audiences but the biggest audiences, and over half of the revenue generated, is from Europe. Over 75% of the players also play in Europe. So yes Europe should have a bigger say than other continents very simply because Europe pays far more than it's way in both money and quality players. When the other countries have the audience and the quality, then they get a bigger say
25 Feb 2015 11:19:02
But if you keep pandering to Europe how will the game expand to other areas of the world? Europe might supply most of the players now but the goal is to have strong leagues in all parts of the world in the futures
25 Feb 2015 12:28:52
Hounsred - we should not have to pay for other leagues to develop. That isn't fair on us and make no mistake - it's us that are paying. How do you think Sky and BT etc raise the money to pay for the television rights? They put our prices up! So we pay for the ability to watch them, that money gets passed on to FIFA to make the thing possible in the first place, and then it's all on at a time when it's not possible to watch them, whilst countries who pay very little get it at a perfect time for them? Does that sound fair to you? It doesn't for me!
China, India, Dubai, Australia, USA, Canada etc are all very rich countries. They want things arranged to be convenient for them? Then they can contribute financially how we do and then they will have every right to tell us to pipe down cause it's not our show. Until then, they need to recognise that no Europe buy-in means no world cup at all - doesn't mean we need to get everything we want when it comes to it, but not a good idea to make it this anti-Europe!
25 Feb 2015 12:40:49
Can't see the game exploding in Qatar to be honest! There were plenty of other areas such as australia arguably more deserving and would fulfill expanding the games reach without the backhanders.