And so we close in on the FIFA votes for the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
After all the controversy, allegations and, no doubt, nods and winks, the votes will take place tomorrow.
There are four bids in the running for the 2018 World Cup, one of which, of course, is England. By the time 2018 comes round it will be 52 years since England hosted the World Cup. For the game's mother-country, this is, in my opinion, far too long. Other bids are Spain AND Portugal and Belgium AND Holland. Personally, I don't go for joint bids, and how is it that Spain - who hosted the tournament in 1982 - could host it alone then, but can't now? The final bid is from Russia, which one can only imagine would not be nearly as welcoming as England.
Obviously, being English, I am biased, but I fervently hope the World Cup "comes home" in 2018, and that all the reports in The Times and Panorama do not influence the final votes.
Sadly, I think it will prove to be a forlorn hope.
As for 2022, there are five bids: Australia, South Korea, Qatar, USA, Japan.
What South Korea and Japan are doing bidding for this World Cup, I can't understand, as they jointly held it so recently in 2002. That would be ridiculously soon, and the USA hosted it in1994. To my mind, you can't invite a country who has never qualified for the World Cup final stages (Qatar) to host the tournament, so my vote would go to the Aussies. We know they'd host a superb tournament.
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