I think that is the thing to be annoyed about, there were several people who basically went back on their word TBH.

I'd be more annoyed if I was Australian, they had a good bid, they haven't held it before and they only got 1 vote. I think that's more shocking than England not getting it, they were beaten by Qatar who are described as a security risk. I'm not sure what sort of a legacy building air conditioned stadia will be either, will they ever get used again?

It's said they're going to dismantle the bigger of the stadia and send them to developing nations.

1) Really?
2) Why does a developing nation need a world class sports venue?

It's cobblers. It's simply a get out clause for FIFA to allow them to deflect criticism for the fact the stadiums being built would house half the population of the entire country they've given the world cup to, which has no interest in football and no history of attending football matches at all. The stadiums are complete white elephants.

They may donate the materials but you won't be able to build a new stadium out of them. Quite a lot of the structure, like the metal skeleton and what have you, you simply can't just take apart and put back together again somewhere else. Once you take it apart it's structurally shot. So basically it's a cover for the fact they're going to pull the stadiums down rather than leave them there as a lasting monument to the insane levels of corruption within the FIFA executive committee.

Jon

Actually, what will happen with some of the footballers who go to play in Qatar? Homosexuality is still a crime over there so are they going to frog march some players from the pitch to a cell at half-time?

It'll be interesting to see what they make of some of the homo-erotic celebrations.

We are arsey in, and with, Europe.

Look at the UKIP outbursts - slagging off ministers from other countries. All very entertaining, but not really the way to conduct yourself in politics.

The whole image of being the lapdog of the USA won't help us much either.

The wikileaks stuff showing what some of the American senators think of us explains a lot - we're pretty much a nobody nation, hanging on to the coat tails of the big boys; enduring anything in order to keep the relationship intact.

Pretty disgusting really.

To be fair, most of Europe is arsey with pretty much the rest of europe and vice versa. You think there aren't right wing nationalist politicians in, I dunno, France say? You think Le Pen's mob like Germany or Italy much? Let alone what the various bits of the former balkan states think of each other. Don't conflate the views of a pocket of extremists with what the population as a whole think. I don't know anyone who particularly dislikes 'Europe' as a place or Europeans as a whole. Maybe they don't like the EU's government mechanisms much but there are significant problems in that arena.

[quote="Spreadie"]The whole image of being the lapdog of the USA won't help us much either. [quote="Spreadie"]
That's a much bigger factor IMO, particularly in Africa and the Middle East. Until we can show some level of independence from the US, we're always going to be rowing up hill with pretty much everyone outside Europe and the Yanks have never actually stood by our side when it mattered anyway. It's just a pity the clueless oiks in power seem to be the last ones to realise this.

Jon

I agree with what you're saying, although..

I would have thought a neo-nazi would have some affinity with the birthplace of national socialism.

That might not be such a problem, Doha is notorious as a destination for homosexual Saudi sex tourists. There are also some very odd perceptions in that area of the world as to what constitutes a homosexual act. I understand it's better to be the pitcher than the catcher out there (although this may be a general rule that applies everywhere).

The birthplace of national socialism was France.

Yeah, but the Germans really ran with it.

Not really.

National Socialism and Nazism are rather different pints of prawns

National Socialist German Workers' Party....

Although as soon as you go to the extreme left or extreme right the affect on the population is pretty similar.

If you want to be picky about it, the czechs were the first to coin the term "national socialism", but it did have it's origins in the french revolution. However, it was the German Nazi party that employed the term in it's widely known fascist sense.

Weird - the second sentence isn't showing on your original post.

As for the name, I wouldn't hold too much store by political names. Labour is suppsed to be a worker's party...

I disagree. The term was used in France 20 years before it moved to Czechoslovakia.


Indeed.

However it was rather a misnomer.