Possible joint Italian/Saudi bid for World cup 2030

[GodIsADeeJay81]

https://twitter.com/TheAthleticUK/statu ... 82852?s=19

Interesting and would make me wonder if it would be moved to the winter again.

[TheFamilyCat]

The Italy bit in summer, Saudi in winter. Makes perfect sense.

[ClaretTony]

Aren’t we bidding for it, all four home nations & Ireland?

[claretburns]

I couldn't see the hosts being anyone other than Argentina and Uruguay, 100 years since the World Cup started being back in Uruguay, now the Saudi's are chucking their money at it, let's see what happens.

With the nostalgia of Uruguay and the money of the Saudi's, a British & Ireland bid wouldn't stand a chance.

[TheFamilyCat]

Aren’t we bidding for it, all four home nations & Ireland?

Presumably if that bid won all five wouldn't automatically qualify?

[Spijed]

I thought FIFA had supposedly cleaned up their act with regards to bribery.

Obviously not if Saudi Arabia has a chance of winning.

[ClaretTony]

Presumably if that bid won all five wouldn't automatically qualify?

I wouldn’t know how it would work then

[Quickenthetempo]

I couldn't see the hosts being anyone other than Argentina and Uruguay, 100 years since the World Cup started being back in Uruguay, now the Saudi's are chucking their money at it, let's see what happens.

With the nostalgia of Uruguay and the money of the Saudi's, a British & Ireland bid wouldn't stand a chance.

Depends how well we looked after their dignitaries at Wembley this summer?

[Chester Perry]

Aren’t we bidding for it, all four home nations & Ireland?

I didn't think we would get past the Spain/Portugal bid to be the European sanctioned one when we announced our intention to bid last year - the behaviour at the Euros confirmed that it will not happen

The rest is politics and there is an awful lot of it - China have spent a fortune on building their bid - they have a large block of support in Africa (having built and paid for Stadiums and supplied telecoms infrastructure for events along with sponsorship, they sponsorship presence in UEFA events has grown substantially, same in South America, they dominate UEFA sponsorship and are funding Gianni Infantino's pet project the FIFA World Club Cup - no doubt they are funding the FIFA sponsored African Super League, which is looking ever more likely.

funny how the Italian participation is being linked to Stadium rebuilds, The Spain/Portugal bids can be linked to legal state support for Stadium rebuilds at the biggest clubs (who have massive debts as a result of such projects)

[Tribesmen]

I would say Spain and Portugal have to be favs

[elwaclaret]

As said if it wins it shows that money is still more important than credibility.

[Chester Perry]

Don't rule out Saudi piggybacking the Spain/Portugal bid - someone has to pay for the Stadiums and Spain's FA already has a relationship with Saudi as do Real Madrid.

[mkmel]

They gave it to Qatar so why not continue in a similar vein and give it to Saudi

Edit. To make my position perfectly clear.....
They disgustingly gave it to Qatar.....

[elwaclaret]

They gave it to Qatar so why not continue in a similar vein and give it to Saudi

Exactly the reason it cannot happen. Everyone knows Quatar was all about the bungs… football is supposed to be cleaning up it’s act… giving it to another despotic regime would send a clear signal that football is morally bankrupt.

[Clarets4me]

Saudi and Italy joint bid ? Christ on a bike, the " Bribes investigation " teams will be kept busy !!

[Burnley Ace]

Could work, the African and Asian teams can play their games in SA and the rest play in Italy.

[Chester Perry]

The news that Saudi Arabia were considering a world cup bid in 2030 first broke last month - from the MMT

I have posted many times about Saudi Arabia's sporting ambitions and it's efforts to get very close to FIFA - this latest effort can only be described as a long short - they want to host he Centenary World Cup (8 years after Qatar) and think doing so in partnership with a European nation will give them the best chance = it may help pay towards the cost of staging but I am not sure UEFA would allow it - ftom the New York Times

Saudi Arabia Mulls Bid for 2030 World Cup
JUNE 10, 2021

Nothing is off the table. Not a bid to buy one of England’s biggest soccer clubs. Not rich offers for multimillion-dollar broadcast packages. Not even an improbable bid to secure the hosting rights to the 2030 World Cup.

As Saudi Arabia sets course to spend its way to the top table of global soccer, the heart of those efforts is a bid to land the sport’s biggest prize. To accomplish its goal, Saudi Arabia has hired Boston Consulting Group to analyze how it could land the quadrennial tournament — one of the most watched events in sports — only eight years after Qatar will become the first country in the Middle East to stage the event.

Several other Western consultants have been asked to help with the project, according to one of the advisers exploring the feasibility of a Saudi bid, and acknowledge that it will require “out of the box thinking” — including, potentially, an agreement to share the hosting rights with a European partner. And despite Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in soccer, the bid, particularly in its current form, is considered a long shot.

A spokesman for Boston Consulting Group, citing company policy, declined to comment.

Sports has fast become a central pillar of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program — a strategic effort to pivot the nation away from oil dependency — but more recently, the country is making a concerted effort behind the scenes to join its regional rival Qatar as a major power broker in soccer.

The strategy has had mixed success. Saudi Arabia has enticed leagues in Italy and Spain to sign lucrative contracts to bring domestic cup finals to the country. But efforts backed by its sovereign wealth fund to acquire an English Premier League club and the broadcast rights to the Champions League have so far failed.

Regardless of the results, its ambition remains untrammeled. Saudi Arabia is determined to be in the ring for all of soccer’s major properties, and at the heart of those efforts most recently is the World Cup.

Human rights groups have long been vocal opponents about staging major sporting events in Saudi Arabia, particularly since the country was accused of complicity in the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

But perhaps the most pressing difficulty to bring a World Cup to Saudi Arabia is a technical one. Since Qatar will stage the first Mideast World Cup next winter, any Saudi Arabian bid would require soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, which runs the tournament, to change its policy of continental rotation in order to bring the event back to the region.

One option under consideration is to join with a major European nation also hoping to host the World Cup. So far, only Britain and a partnership of Portugal and Spain, a country whose soccer federation has forged close ties to Saudi Arabia, have publicly announced their intentions to enter the bidding process. Italy, another of Saudi Arabia’s soccer allies, is also considering an effort to host the event for the first time since 1990.

Such a cross-continental offer would also require a change of policy from FIFA, which has never staged a tournament on two continents. The 2002 World Cup was shared by the Asian neighbors Japan and South Korea. And the joint United States, Mexico and Canada competition in 2026 will be the first time the World Cup, which by then will have expanded from 32 to 48 teams, is staged in three countries.

For a Saudi bid to be successful, organizers could once again have to be persuaded to shift the dates of the tournament from their traditional June-July window to November-December to account for hot weather in the Gulf. The global soccer schedule had to be upended to ensure Qatar could stage the tournament safely, and European leagues whose schedules would be upended might be reluctant to repeat the interruption.

Saudi Arabian hopes, though, are boosted by its close links to FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, who recently drew criticism from human rights groups after playing a starring role in a promotional video for the Saudi ministry of sport.

In January, Infantino held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the architect of Vision 2030. And FIFA’s membership agreed last month to a motion offered by Saudi Arabia’s soccer federation to study the possibility of holding the World Cup every two years instead of its current quadrennial format.

That change could allow even more countries to enter the bidding.

“It is time to review how the global game is structured and to consider what is best for the future of our sport,” the president of Saudi Arabia’s soccer federation, Yasser al-Misehal, said at the time. “This should include whether the current four-year cycle remains the optimum basis for how football is managed both from a competition and commercial perspective.”

A spokesman for the Saudi Arabian soccer federation declined to comment on a possible World Cup bid, but did point out that the country was fast becoming a destination for high-profile sporting events. In recent years, it has staged major boxing matches, motor races and golf events.

“We’re keen to take the stage in the global game as well, turning our passion into on-pitch success, as well as greater collaboration with the international football family,” the Saudi soccer federation said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia, despite its largess, also needs to rebuild bridges with a soccer economy still smarting from the effects of a sophisticated pirate television network based in the country that for years stole billions of dollars worth of sports content, repackaged it and sold it to Saudi subscribers. FIFA, as well as major competitions like England’s Premier League and Spain’s Liga, were blocked from filing legal claims in Saudi Arabia to protest the piracy.

The network that broadcast the stolen matches, BeoutQ, formed during a regional dispute with Qatar, is now off the air. And while the conflict with Qatar has largely been healed, beIN, the Qatari-owned sports broadcaster, remains banned in Saudi Arabia. That means the only way soccer-mad Saudis will be able to watch this summer’s European soccer championship, and a parallel event in South America, will be through illegal broadcasts.

European soccer’s governing body on Wednesday rejected a Saudi offer of around $600 million to broadcast the Champions League regionally, preferring to stick with its current partner, beIN.

[Chester Perry]

Of course Saudi Arabia recently proposed *on behalf of Gianni Infantino - FIFA's President) that the World Cup be played every 2 years - It seems that is now FIFA's undeclared aim following lack of media interest in their plans to try and wrest control of the elite club game - from the MMT

Recently Saudi Arabia proposed that the World Cup be played every two years, we now know that this was (as always suspected) at the behest of FIFA President Gianni Infantino - how can we be so certain - well this thread has already shown that Infantino has control of CAF the African Confederation and particularly it's new President Patrice Motsepe - today he has come out and championed the world cup being played every two years. The suspicion is that this comes after Infantino's failed attempts to gain media interest in both his expanded club world cup and an African Super League. What we are certain of is that FIFA is desperately looking for ways to increase their revenues and by association power of the world game as both UEFA and to a lesser extent CONMEBOL become more financially independent.

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 2497383435

[jrgbfc]

It's a stupid enough idea that FIFA may just go for it.

[Stalbansclaret]

Once Gianni Infantino wakes up with a camel's head in his bed I think you'll find this bid will be quickly accepted.

[ŽižkovClaret]

After the antics at Wembley, ive certainly given up on the UK hosting any international tournaments

[Spijed]

If it's played every two years then that would most likely mean they'll ditch the Euro's, Copa America & Africa Cup of Nations.

[tim_noone]

After the antics at Wembley, ive certainly given up on the UK hosting any international tournaments

Saudi it is Then....any trouble "off with their Heads".

[Chester Perry]

If it's played every two years then that would most likely mean they'll ditch the Euro's, Copa America & Africa Cup of Nations.

No they are happy for them to be kept but still want a World Club cup every 4 years as well - what has yet to be mentioned in parallel with this but is a known ambition of FIFA is that the number of teams to qualify for a World Cup may rise to 48, as always it is about money, UEFA are also talking about 32 teams for the Euros and have raised it's numbers in it's club competitions to 36 from 2024

What most people forget is that this has enormous repercussions for the domestic game - a World Cup every two years will see an international Calendar of 12 to 17 games a season, add in UEFA club competitions being a minimum of 10 and as many as 17 from 2024. UEFA are already campaigning for it's feeder leagues to have a maximum of 18 teams and 1 domestic cup this would see FIFA forcing that model

These restrictions are supposedly based on the welfare of the players, as we have seen if they are not given sufficient downtime they are far more susceptible to injuries. There is also no respect for our domestic traditions primarily because the English game is a huge outlier from the norm, the depth of the fully professional game stretches to around 116 clubs (possibly more) and the EFL has a huge reliance on it's cup for broadcast revenue - it is though to provide two thirds of it's total £119m a year deal. FIFA and UEFA effectively want to put an end to those traditions so they can earn more money for their members.

In the meantime we look like we are heading for an Independent regulator of the game to address issues yet to be determined but when so much external influence is being exerted on our game what if anything can that regulator do to uphold our traditions and strength in depth?

[Chester Perry]

After the antics at Wembley, ive certainly given up on the UK hosting any international tournaments

Qatar has had a field day with it from a public relations perspective, it has certainly helped them in regards to their restrictive approach to alcohol during the World Cup and no doubt they will take a quite severe approach to those who like to have a few snorts of powder before and during a game too, The mobs that attach themselves to England at such tournaments are likely to find the policing/legal/sentencing/detention approach quite different.

[SMClaret]

Might not be a bad thing...

[tarkys_ears]

Qatar has had a field day with it from a public relations perspective, it has certainly helped them in regards to their restrictive approach to alcohol during the World Cup and no doubt they will take a quite severe approach to those who like to have a few snorts of powder before and during a game too, The mobs that attach themselves to England at such tournaments are likely to find the policing/legal/sentencing/detention approach quite different.

They wouldn't want the aggro.

They'll just end up deporting anyone caught doing western nasties

[Chester Perry]

speaking of the powder snorters this is an interesting and hopefully positive move - from the Independent

Police call for cocaine users to be banned from football matches after Euros mayhem
Exclusive: ‘Cocaine use is yet to be addressed in football,’ expert warns after worst tournament for crime

Lizzie Dearden - Home Affairs Correspondent

3 hours ago

England fans 'break through security' at Wembley ahead of the Euro 2020 final
Police want the power to ban football fans who take cocaine at matches, over concerns that the drug could be driving disorder and violence.

Some England supporters were filmed openly snorting white powder at Wembley and elsewhere in London during the Euro 2020 final, which saw large numbers of ticketless people force their way into the stadium.

Cheshire Constabulary chief constable Mark Roberts, who is the national lead for football policing, told The Independent he was seeking changes that would allow police to impose Football Banning Orders for drug possession.

He said cocaine use was “prevalent” among football fans and had been recognised as a problem by police at stadiums for years.

“Football reflects the increased use of cocaine in wider society but it can drive some of the negative behaviour,” Mr Roberts added.

“Football Banning Order legislation currently specifies issues relating to alcohol misuse, and we would very much like to bring that up to date with drug usage and make that a trigger in the same way.”

The law allows bans to be imposed if people have been convicted of specific offences and the move would prevent violence or disorder.

Relevant offences include the “possession of alcohol or being drunk while entering/trying to enter a ground”, but there is no equivalent provision for drugs.

Labour is supporting the call, following reports of people in football crowds “brazenly taking drugs and causing mayhem” during the Euros.

“The law should be changed to keep pace with the real world – and reflect what is causing and contributing to disorder,” said the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds. “That should include the use of all illegal drugs when it comes to Football Banning Orders.”

In the wake of a tide of racist abuse targeted at England footballers following their loss to Italy, Boris Johnson announced the laws would be extended so online abusers can be banned from stadiums for up to 10 years.

The Home Office said the legislation was “kept under constant review” but would not say if it was considering Mr Roberts’s call on drugs.

A behavioural expert questioned whether cocaine use may have played a key role in the chaos at Wembley on the day of the Euro 2020 final.

Thousands of fans without tickets descended on the stadium and an unknown number forced their way in, clashing violently with stewards and police, after hours of drinking and raucous celebrations.

Disorder was reported across the country in town centres and fan zones, at the end of the worst football tournament on record for crime.

Dr Martha Newson, an anthropologist at the University of Kent who specialises in football fandoms, said that “cocaine culture” was growing.

“Alcohol was certainly a central element at Wembley on Sunday, but we also need to consider the role cocaine might have had,” she told The Independent.

“My recent research shows that cocaine use among fans is associated with more fan disorder and violence.

“To sustain a day of drinking and still have the energy and coordination to push through security late in the day would be unusual. For a decade or more, many hardcore fans have used cocaine to maintain their energy in a way that alcohol cannot. Cocaine use is yet to be addressed in football.”

Dr Newson published research in May that found self-reported cocaine use among football fans was higher than the national average.

Almost a third of those who took part in a survey said they had witnessed others taking the class A drug at matches in the past year and 6 per cent reported taking it themselves.

“Football fans may be a population where the aggressive outcomes associated with cocaine use are amplified,” the paper said.

“Cocaine use among football fans has already been associated with the construction of ‘hyper-masculine identities’ and associated aggression.

“Indeed, cocaine has become an element of ‘lad’ culture and, alongside alcohol, fuels competitiveness and aggression from travel to a match, until well after it is finished.”

The research found that football fans who felt “highly fused” to their fellow supporters and took cocaine were “particularly likely to report past aggression toward rivals”.

Dr Newson said it was not possible to say whether cocaine directly caused violence, because of the role of other factors including alcohol and intense social bonding.

But she added: “I think there’s a culture of it in football at the moment, just like there has been with alcohol.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Football-related violence and disorder of any kind will not be tolerated, which is why around 1,400 hooligans are currently barred from attending games under Football Banning Orders.

“The legislation is kept under constant review and this week the prime minister announced it would be extended so online abusers can be banned from stadiums for up to 10 years.

“Drugs devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities, which is why we are setting up a new cross-government drugs unit to tackle the issue.”

Breaching a Football Banning Order is a criminal offence, punishable by a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison or a fine of up to £10,000, or both.

[SalisburyClaret]

They’re going to extreme lengths to blame everything to reduce coverage of total shambles at Wembley and the lies told by the Police and FIFA

[claretburns]

One thing on this, how can Saudi host in 2030, with Qatar having 2022, following FIFA regulations, a member of the Asian Federation cannot host a World Cup now until 2034 at the earliest, or do FIFA again pocket the cash and "change" the regulations?