According to Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and a vicious supporter of the regime change wars in Libya and Syria, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, it is “unthinkable” that Russia should host the World Cup in 2018 because pro-Russian separatist rebels have been accused by the US-NATO military bloc of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines airplane.
Yet, it was quite acceptable for the United Kingdom, which is responsible for (not accused of) the killing of over 1000 000 Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans, and destroying THREE countries, to have hosted the Olympic Games in 2012!!
Left in the shade is the failed English bid for the World Cup 2018. Mr Clegg did not rule out the United Kingdom as a potential alternative host for 2018 – saying the country had the required stadiums, infrastructure and “enthusiasm.”
Russia beat out England (and joint bids by Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium) for World Cup 2018.
England’s bid, costing 19 million pounds, was unsuccessful in December 2010, only receiving 2 out of 22 votes from the FIFA executive committee in the first round of voting.
The vote was especially crushing for England, which has not hosted the World Cup since winning it for the only time in 1966 and has been eliminated in the first round of the past two World Cups. England’s final presentation included Prince William, Prime Minister David Cameron and then Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, a former captain of England’s soccer team who has bought a franchise in US Major League Soccer.
In the recriminations that followed, the London Daily Mail called the grand total of two votes “a major embarrassment to David Cameron,” who had gone several times to Switzerland to personally lobby FIFA delegates. Shadow sports secretary Ivan Lewis called for an independent inquiry following the failed bid. The Daily Mail called Russia “a mafia state.”
The English bid was engulfed in scandal in May, 2010: Lord Triesman, former Football Association chairman and chair of the 2014 bid, was forced to quit after making unfounded allegations about Spain and Russia colluding to influence referees at the World Cup. Secret tape revealed he told a friend Spain could drop its bid if Russia helped bribe referees at 2010 event.
Profits for big British capital would have been enormous, as suggested by a short list of the bid “partners”:
Maybe Mr Clegg got a phone call from Washington. The US by the way was beat out by tiny, oil-rich Qatar, which had never even qualified for a World Cup, for World Cup 2022 [1]. Perhaps that is one of the main reasons for the “investigative journalism” and exposés by the London press of the horrible reality of the conditions faced by the enslaved construction workers in Qatar and corruption in FIFA around the extraordinary acceptance of Qatar.
There is truly no limit to the British hypocrisy!
– Tony Seed with thanks to Hibe Syriana
Endnote
1 The awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar was one of the most controversial decisions in sporting history. Qatar defeated the United States (whose bid team included former President Bill Clinton) 14-8 in a final round vote after Australia, Japan and South Korea were eliminated. In chosing Qatar, the Eurocentric FIFA effectively pre-empted a bid from China for the 2026 World Cup, as countries from the same continent cannot host successive world cups, paving the way for a strong European bid. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee also chose Rio de Janeiro over Chicago and others for the 2016 Olympics despite a personal lobbying effort by President Barack Obama.
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