The 2034 World Cup was awarded to Saudi Arabia this week. The Athletic put together a tight, yet semi-objective article following the announcement. (It’s a decent and short read)
So how the hell did we get here with Qatar, another Middle East nation just hosting the 2022 World Cup? Unfortunately, we live in a world where bottom line will always trump tradition, and FIFA controls the greatest product on planet Earth: football. But why is FIFA clever?
FIFA is clever (in my opinion) because they raced as fast as possible to get Saudi Arabia, who is currently pumping hundreds of millions into football players and other sports (read Athletic article) like there’s no tomorrow. I’m sure Infantino and his buddies at FIFA are dripping with cash on this Saudi bid, following a successful “money grab” in Qatar. The problem is, the World Cup should be hosted in Europe or South America three times in a row before it goes to the Middle East. But at the end of the day, it’s all about that “chedda cheese”.
Following 2022 Qatar, the World Cup was given to North America between the USA, Canada, and Mexico for 2026. That’s fair with the MLS and Liga MX bringing in crowds of tens of thousands to their domestic matches. Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Not even 10% of that on the average.
What FIFA did next was so super clever. They gave the the 2030 World Cup to three continents. Three!
For the opening of the 2030 World Cup — and to celebrate the tournament’s 100-year anniversary — the first few matches will be held in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. In my opinion, those three nations should have hosted the tournament without any help. The later matches of the 2030 World Cup with then move to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco (logistics nightmare coming from South America) which mean three continents will host one tournament (South America, Africa, Europe). Although Sepp Blatter got rid of continental rotation in 2007 (Reuters) in order to control the narrative and bids more closely, knocking out North America, South America, Europe and Africa in back-to-back World Cup leaves only two options for the following World Cup (2034). Asia and Australia. With Saudi Arabia bidding against only Australia for 2034, Australia bowed out (no coincidence) this week (The Guardian) to give the tournament to Saudi Arabia by default. And such is life. The average football fan will not be happy, yet they will still be glued to their televisions.
Things I learned with this decision:
-FIFA is a business more concerned with what happens in bank accounts rather than the football field
-Global football is becoming the WWE more and more everyday with decisions like these on and off the field (VAR)
-Africa gets the short end of the stick only having the ability to host a portion of the matches in Morocco in 2034. Africa has only hosted the tournament once before (2010)
-Australia certainly will receive the 2038 World Cup hosting bid
-Human rights violations galore! It happened in Qatar…it’s going to happen again in Saudi Arabia. And no one in charge is going to bat an eyelash
At this rate, football may become unwatchable in the next decade. It’s the equivalent of hosting the Stanley Cup playoffs in Fiji or the Super Bowl in India. It just doesn’t make sense. Give the World Cup to nations that live for the game.
It’s a crazy thought for me, but when all is said and done in 2034, we will be able to sat, “two of the last four World Cup have been hosted in the Middle East.” Simply, crazy.
Judging by current demographic projections half of Europe will be gone by then, well maybe not gone…just replaced by people of varied origins.
It’ll kinda be like a pan-islamic games.
Žalostno
Bože pomozi.
Misao o zagrijavanju srcu
@MART
https://croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-73/#comments/500600
40% of HNL players being foreigners is definitely bad news for the development of our youths which will directly impact the national team. It didn’t seem like such a high percentage to me, I would have thought it was more like one third. Wonder why this is happening… not enough talented youngsters coming through from the academies (which itself could be a function of a declining youth population in Hrvatska)? Or for some reason, clubs becoming less willing to blood inexperienced youngsters? Regardless, HNS had better keep the proportion of foreigners in HNL in check, especially given the talent pool for NT to draw from is already small to begin with.
I think they’re counting all BiH Croats and other diaspora Croats as foreigners in that number.
BiH Croats are foreigners. Go to Zagreb and ask them what they think of bosanci or hercegovci.
I hope you’re right!
@Maminjo, that is.
Just wait until the nepalese, filipino, indian, negro, and arab Croats start entering the junior football ranks, it wont be long until real Croatian people will be the minority in the HNL & eventually the NT.
Is it true that Crnkovic is a half breed with an arabian culture? Why do you yugos allow him on this site?
Anyone heard of the new movie in production in Arabia, it’s called “Mohammed & Aisha, a love story.”
The opening scene I hear will be somewhat disturbing for “Dajjal supporters”, it will show a 6 year playing with her dolls and a 50 year old Mohammed falling in love at first site. Disgusting.
It is not the job of the HNS to keep anything in check about the number of foreigners playing in the HNL. Blame the clubs.
Croatia is part of the EU now. You can’t restrict the number of EU citizens. You legally can limit the number of non-EU members if you want to go that route. But, blame the clubs
Be prepared for a drop. Croatian population continues to decline as people want to leave. We can thank our friends from HDZ for failed policies. I don’t want to go into politics too much since most of the people here don’t know the difference with HDZ, Most, SDP, and others.
I don’t understand the multi-party system period. In my mind, everyman should express what is in his heart as a patriot, and not a label, and promote what is best for the country as a whole. I have never seen two men/women exactly think alike, let alone two or four groups of collective people, that are hijacked, by unseen outside forces.
Watching the Democratic party, allow millions of people to pour in, in hopes of changing the demographics to secure power in the future is so sad. It is power at any cost. It is time for South America to carry the torch and be the Shining Beacon on the hill for the rest of the world.
I guess this may be the fate of Croatia as well. Good bye Marko. T. , these Crazy times. Bye Bye, Miss Croatian Pogaca.
I watched a lot of the Croatian Nova TV broadcast from Katar, including their pregame shows, behind the scenes documentary, etc. The hosts were trying their best to have fun and make their viewers experience the local atmosphere. They were so obviously disappointed and annoyed with all of the problems they were encountering. It seemed like they couldn’t wait to go home. Based on all of these shows, I would say qatar was a huge bust for hard-core fans. I can’t see why Saudi would be ant better…unless we win of course.
You were not watching Nova TV pregame shows because Nova TV didn’t have the rights for the World Cup. HRT did and their studio show was in Zagreb, not in Katar. So, who knows what you were watching.
Well, I’m sure I watched nova broadcast from Qatar. Maybe it was just documentaries, etc. Perhaps I got mixed up if it was HRT or nova for the games. Either way from the Croatian media that I read, and watched, it’s seems like qatar was a bust from a fans perspective.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzKLR-tLPki/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Rebic is being Rebic again, lol😂
The Arab countries suck for these events. No parties, no drinks and celebration, no fun, no chicks wearing minimal clothes. Lame as hell. We don’t need the lgbt propaganda but we also don’t need the strict laws of the Arab countries. A true loss for football
Amen 🙏 brate.
You can drink and party over there. Finding drinks in Katar was not a problem. Same in Saudi.
Another wealthy and healthy country that will make an outstanding World Cup.
without any disturbance from drunk fans and LGBT propaganda…
only Dajjal supporters dislike it ~
The World Cup in Qatar was a great success. Best fan experience. Travel and logistics were easy.
Compared to most others, on TV it came off like it was at a soulless shopping mall.
agreed, that is the negative. But, if you are there it is fantastic because everything was first class. The atmosphere before games and meeting up with fans is where things lacked.
On Canadian TV at least, there was no showing of local watch events, no fun party stories with travelling fans. Christ, the commentators didn’t even let us know the weather/temperature before or during games. Perhaps not allowed.
weather was great all tournament. Temps were in the 20-23 range. Perfect.
I guess I would like to add to the litmus test, would you like to live at that location, when the tournament was complete, after the spectacle went away.
I mean if you want to start talking about human rights then nice countries who don’t condone genocide would get the World Cup. Why don’t we host the World Cup in Gaza? Is the hypocrisy starting to dawn on you yet? Or you want to pick and choose? One day it’s all about who has got the most money, the next day (when someone else has got more money) it’s about “human rights”. You can’t have your cake and eat it
Why are you calling others hypocrites? Nobody’s perfect Crnky.
You are pro-Muslim and you are pro-Socialist…but did you didn’t boycott the last World Cup when many muslims were killed during construction when the Qatari were building stadiums.
Lol. Maminjo, I’m not pro Muslim, I’m pro reality. I hate Saudi and Qatar. Religious identity is just a way of manipulating people. Basically I know history and understand how the world actually works. I know why wars are fought and I know why people think the dumb shit they think. My identity is simple Human. I’m on the side of truth and justice. My head is not filled with bizarre invented ideas. People don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. It’s mostly hilarious. And sometimes worrying. I mean have people actually ever picked up a history book? Or an economics book? I doubt it. I know it’s difficult but nut job conspiracy lunatics appear more often here than would be statistically probable. That is a stain on the Croatian conscience. Racism, religious extremism, genocide, economic injustice and exploitation, invading countries left right and centre for 75 years (USA), these are bad bad bad things. It’s not rocket science. Of course I’m pro socialist I’m not an absolute idiot. Thanks
Hey Crnkovic,
I usually enjoy your soccer comments but talking about how no one else reads history books or knows what their talking about and then calling yourself pro socialist is a bit crazy. Ever come across the USSR (Union of Soviet SOCIALIST republics) in any of your vaunted history books?Yeah that was a wonderful place with a wonderful system. Gulags, show trials, self censorship, constant shortages….I could go on and on.
I’m not too big on overarching political systems of any kind but I have to say socialism is just a thin veneer of false kindness to cover up outright theft.
One of the latest ‘great’ socialist ideas I’ve heard recently bandied about is reparations for slavery. Then I heard an excellent quote countering that idea. ‘Reparations for slavery is simply making people who were never slave owners give money to people who were never slaves.’ I don’t know what you think of that but I call that unjustified theft.
Also, you say religious identity is just a way of manipulating people. Sadly, again I’d say you’re way off base. Now this is a huge topic but before anyone begins to judge any religious system a good place to start is to learn about what the system teaches.
There definitely are major differences in religious systems and teachings.
One Faith is right and all the others are wrong (even though the wrong ones may have much that is good in them).
All I will say about that is ‘Seek and ye shall find.’
Time to hit the books!
Bog i Hrvati
For most of us those who watch the games in community Hall gatherings in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Toronto, Chicago, NY, LA, Split, Hvar, and Zagreb, it really does not matter much. But there are diehards on this site that go every 4 years, and would enjoy a week in Perth vs a sanitized fenced in area Abu Dhabi, I would imagine, such as Ante.
Albeit, it seems like these wealthy countries have the money to run these events efficiently, people are corralled into safe zone areas, because their behavior is considered abhorrent to the hosting country, and everyone drinks near-beer.
If I had my druthers, they play it in Dublin, Ireland every year.
It’s the free market boys ie, whoever has the most money, and let’s not forget that the oil industry, along with the arms trade, is the most lucrative business out there, gets to call the shots. It’s called capitalism. You should be proud. I think Saudi should host every World Cup. They are the richest so they deserve it
We need to have the World Cup in Hercegovina.
Zrinjski is becoming the new Dinamo and Mamic will grease the wheels at FIFA to make it happen.
Stadion Pecara in Siroki can host the Finals.
All the non catholic nations must stay in Međugorije…to be enlightened
Yes, all we need is some Gospa-branded shawarma stands there and we’re good
I haven’t been there for a long time, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a shawarma place by now😕
Australia VS Arabia Saudia,
Melbourne/Perth/Brisbane vs SA staged circus,
Democracy vs Theocracy,
Freedom vs Totalitarianism.
Welcoming culture vs staged control event.
Sounds like a toss-up, can’t make up my mind. I can see their dilemma.
With all the world tensions going on, any westerner who attends this world cup, in 2034, goes at their own risk. What kind of world will this be 2034, is anyone’s guess, but if you look at the trajectory from 1945, it probably is not good. The Islamic culture is having a lot of problem with secular modernity. The area is a powder keg ready to go off.
So sad Saudi Arab will waste so money on these events. Attendees are never going to return as a vacation destination I would guess, so what is the purpose of it all from the SA point of view.
The Qatar world cup seemed so sterile. Does not sound like a good plan. This is not a Norman Rockwell moment.
I guess it will be another WC in November/December.
Well we’re 1-0 in those (in terms of medaling) 😉
It’s crazy the saudis/ Qatari will each host a World Cup before a Balkan WC (football wise, money wise it makes perfect sense)