As American soccer fans, it's probably about time we moved on from last week's bid disaster. What's done is done, whining about it isn't going to change anything.


Any fallout to come from what is either FIFA business as usual or the final malfeasant straw won't be our doing; for all the marketing clout contained within American borders, US Soccer is hardly in a place to leverage it. Major League Soccer cannot afford any sanctions taken should our federation make some anti-corruption stand. Unless England chooses the nuclear option and pulls out of FIFA and invites the US to come along, there isn't much to consider. Soccer in the US can't afford our going rogue.

By Keith Hickey

With FIFA having shown to the World on Thursday that it doesn't matter if you're an insignificant backwater, you too can host a World Cup if you throw enough money at it, I figured it was time to propose a long-standing dream of mine.

FIFA should award the 2026 World Cup to my home state of Pennsylvania.

It may seem odd that if the country as a whole could not land the tournament, one state alone could even have a chance, but bear with me for a moment. Pennsylvania, at roughly 46 thousand square miles, is ten times the size of 2022 host Qatar. It has a population of over 12.6 million, roughly 7.5 times that of Qatar.

Slavery in Pennsylvania has been completely illegal since 1847 (and it was never that popular before then). In Qatar, a foreign worker may not enter the country without having a sponsor. The worker cannot leave without the sponsor's permission. Many sponsors do not allow the transfer of one employee to another sponsor (aka "Finding a new job). Confiscation of passports and withholding of wages is commonplace.

While same-sex marriage is not yet legal in Pennsylvania, the acts and social conventions associated with that lifestyle are. In Qatar, sodomy carries a five year prison sentence.

Pennsylvania was founded on the idea of religious tolerance. The law in Qatar is based on Sunni Islam, and Apostasy is on the books as a capital offense. Even non-Muslims are banned from eating and drinking in public during Ramadan.

Social issues aside, let's take a look at the hard numbers of infrastructure.

Pennsylvania could be divided into three zones for the World Cup.

The Western Zone, with Heinz Field (65,050 Capacity) and PNC Park (38,496) in Pittsburgh would be served by Pittsburgh International Airport.

The Central Zone, home of Beaver Stadium (107,282) would host the opening match and the final, and would be served by Harrisburg International Airport.

And finally, the more populous Eastern Zone would host most of the matches. It has a number of stadiums, including Lincoln Financial Field (69,144), Franklin Field (52,593), Citizens Bank Park (46,528), and PPL Park (18,500, but designed to be expanded to 30,000 with relative ease).

So that's six stadiums which would be ready with minor reconfigurations, and a seventh that requires moderate expansion. Since FIFA requires at least eight, we'll put up a temporary modular 30,000 seat stadium in Harrisburg, and when the tournament is over, ship it off to some impoverished backwater desperately in need of such a facility. Like D.C.

There are already extensive train and highway systems connecting all three host zones The light rail network may require some modernization, but that's a legacy project which will serve the state long after the tournament has left, and it's not like we have to build, say, a dozen air-conditioned stadiums in a desert the size of Connecticut.

That would just be stupid.

What can I say that hasn't been said?  There's only one angle that matters, that FIFA finally crossed whatever lines remained that it hadn't managed to cross already.  As Americans, we're disappointed we won't have the World Cup at home again.  As soccer fans, we're angry that FIFA so baldly flaunted what we knew all along; that they're corrupt, incompetent, or both.


Jolly old Sepp, with an ego the size of an imaginary stadium in the desert (built by whom, exactly?), and a brazenness so stunning it sounds like the stuff of fiction.  If Sepp was a character in a movie, we'd chuckle at just how over-the-top his clownish act is.  Blatter's sanctimony, as he swings the World Cup like a censer across various "new territories", cannot conceal the blatant and transparent (as opposed to the voting system, which is not) money grab of soccer governing body.  Sure, Sepp gets to play football pied piper, and the World Cup going to Russia and Qatar is a fine thing in that way; but when the process is so rife with abuse of power, something should, and must, change.

So, the rumblings and grumblings surrounding the USA World Cup bid proved to be true Thursday morning, as Qatar completed their dream-building exercise with the FIFA executive committee and took home the prized 2022 hosting rights. I’m not too surprised given the behind the scenes comments being passed around as recently as MLS Cup weekend in Toronto. After a luncheon hosted by the bid committee, in which Sunil Gulati and other US Soccer officials refused to talk directly about their competition in the FIFA vote, the writing on the wall that Qatar was a formidable foe was clear to see. Throw in the nervous looks of some officials to the threat posed by the diminutive Middle Eastern country, plus the subsequent kowtowing of MLS Commissioner Don Garber in donating $2 million to the bid and then suggesting major calendar changes to the league to appease soccer's governing body, and it strongly suggested that the USA's World Cup fait accompli everyone expected on December 2nd was in jeopardy.

Black is appropriate

Dear friends,

It's a dark day.  FIFA, in their grand wisdom, has chosen to give the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.  We know you have thoughts, we know you want to share them.  We're here to give you a forum.  We'll probably also touch on the 2018 race, won by Russia over England and others.


The American Soccer Show will be live tonight starting at 8 PM Eastern.  You can listen in via the Live Show page here or at the AmSoc UStream channel.


-JD

Duane Rollins of Canadian Soccer News is running a live blog on Decision Day, and since I'm not able to administer one myself, let's just share his.  Hopefully the Canadians won't point and laugh if we lose.


I'll pop in as work allows.  Live blog after the jump.

It's decision day in Zurich.  The 2018 bidders have completed their presentations, and an announcement is expected (though don't be surprised if they makes us wait) around 10 AM ET.  While FIFA's Executive Committee mulls their options over lunch, those of us following along at home or work are left to try and handicap a race that is literally unhandicapple-able.

The last step for the USA bid committee before tomorrow's monumental vote is over.  Along with fellow 2022 bidders Australia, Korea, Qatar, and Japan, the United States presented their case before the assembled FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich; each bidder highlighted their strengths through chosen speakers and videos.

All of the heavy hitters, minus Vladimir Putin apparently, are in Zurich ahead of Thursday's World Cup bid vote. This is the final push, the last minute glad-handing that is supposed to put a bid over the top; for Qatar, football great Zinedine Zidane is the marquee name.  For England, it's David Beckham, Prime Minister David Cameron, and Prince William.  For the United States, it's Landon Donovan, Attorney General Eric Holder (See? Our government is behind the bid!), former President Bill Clinton and legendary actor Morgan Freeman.

Warning: I didn't know where this was going when I started, so it's completely slapped together and borders on incoherence.  Read at your own risk. - JD


Here we are, finally inhabiting the part of the calendar that will see a decision made on the sites of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Anticipation fills soccer fans around the world, from Australia to Qatar (all twenty-something of them - feels good to use that joke after hearing it for so long from American soccer-haters) Russia, England, and the United States.

 <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=d2610372-25c8-45de-b6c2-b44ef2770d01" target="_new" title="">Eric Wynalda: Memories of 1994</a>

Video of Eric Wynalda talking about World Cup '94 - thanks to Ben from Bumpy Pitch/The Original Winger for passing this along.


Gotta love the shots of Wynalda posing in various locations around the Rose Bowl.


Bid vote in less than eight days.

FIFA released bid evaluations on the nine countries vying for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups this morning. In addition to information on stadiums and projected number of tickets available, each report assessed the bidding nations on their ability to host an event the scale of the World Cup and assigned a risk level; the previously reported US summary put FIFA's risk at "medium." Below are the reports for each of the nations competing with the US for the 2022 tournament, plus a chart with key information on all bids.

Technical reports on FIFA's World Cup bid inspections are due to be posted to the governing body's website tomorrow morning; per POLITICO, the US bid faces concerns over the level of government commitment.

From Rob Harris of the AP on Twitter this morning:

More than money, fame or power, Sepp Blatter cares about his legacy.  The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is Blatter's pride and joy, a bit of feel good work done to push a country emerging from apartheid towards a new era in its history.  As Sepp presided over FIFA when the World Cup finally came to Africa, he'll reap some of the historical reward.  That the tournament may not have the long-lasting impact Blatter and FIFA promised and has left South Africa with expensive white elephant stadiums is ultimately none of Sepp's concern.

FIFA wrapped up their planned Executive Committee meetings today with a press conference in Zurich, where it was announced that the December 2 vote on World Cup bids for 2018 and 2022 would go ahead as scheduled. Despite a barrage of questions as to the fairness of the vote, and though he admitted that combining the voting on 2018 and 2022 was a mistake in retrospect, Sepp Blatter and FIFA did little to assuage fears of corruption.

Japan is regarded as a long shot to win the 2022 World Cup bid, in part because they were joint hosts with South Korea (another 2022 bidder) only eight years ago. If FIFA can be swayed by promises of advanced technology, however, they're chances might be better than conventional wisdom believes.

FIFA's ethics committee addressed the recent vote-selling scandal publicly yesterday, announcing that the two executive members caught on tape by The Sunday Times offering to sell their votes, Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, are provisionally suspended pending a further investigation.  A final hearing will take place next month.