World Cup 2018, 2022 host vote as planned on December 2

Former Member

The hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be elected as planned on
December 2 despite a current corruption probe, the president of the ruling football body FIFA, Joseph Blatter, said on Friday.

Blatter told a news conference that the FIFA executive committee saw no reason at meetings Thursday and Friday to change the date.

"There was never a question of changing the procedure. On December 2 here in Zurich the executive committee will decide in a secret ballot who will be hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups," Blatter said.

However, Blatter acknowledged that the recent incidents around individuals and bids showed it was wrong to elect two World Cup hosts on one day for the first time. The decision was made by FIFA in 2008.

"I think it was not the right thing to do," said Blatter. "We thought it was a good decision (in 2008)."

FIFA last week provisionally suspended two members of the executive committee - Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti - over allegations they offered to sell their votes to undercover newspaper reporters from the Sunday Times.

Blatter said that the ethics committee will decide on their fate ahead of the December vote, at meetings set for November 15-17.

Blatter also confirmed that the ethics committee has opened a file on the bidding process and reiterated that "any kind of agreement (among bidders) is prohibited."

The joint 2018 bidders Spain and Portugal are said to be accused of having colluded with Qatar, which is a candidate to stage the 2022 World Cup, for the interchange of votes. Spain confirmed a FIFA probe on Thursday.

Blatter refused to give names and said this issue will also be dealt with by the ethics committee next month.

Apart from Spain/Portugal, the other countries competing to host the 2018 tournament are England, Russia and Netherlands/Belgium, while the 2022 World Cup hosts will be from Australia, United States, Qatar, Japan and South Korea.

Changing the date would have caused problems for FIFA and bidders as well who are planning to bring in politicians such as Vladimir Putin and Bill Clinton for the crucial day.

Blatter again dismissed calls for an external probe into the affair and questioned the methods by The Sunday Times.

"It is easy to attack FIFA but if we enter into this type of behaviour there is no end," he said

Former Member

what are your personal views on the world cup.

it would be nice to know what you think



to be honest, i don't really watch much of it. this year i watched england's poor performance, they didon't even reach the finals.

i'll watch it if there's really nothing else on, but i'm not really a big football fan.