FIFA Wants “World Cup in a Box”
World Football Insider has a fascinating article published today if you are interested in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup Bids.
FIFA’s requirements – they’re getting longer and very much more specific on what they want you to deliver. If anything the pitch to host the tournament is just a small part of the bid book. The rest is made up of extensive legal guarantees.
US Soccer President Sunil Gulati
Their article has quotes from US Soccer President Sunil Gulati who has said that FIFA now wants “the World Cup in a box:”
USA World Cup bid chairman Sunil Gulati surmised FIFA’s demands most succinctly when he said that FIFA now expected “the World Cup in a box”.
“Everything is signed, sealed and delivered maybe 12 years out,” he said in London last week. “Everything contracted, hotel rooms booked across the country.”
Another senior official on a European bid described the pursuit of legal and governmental guarantees demanded by the bid process as “exhausting”.
England 2018 director Ian Riley, who also authored South Africa’s unsuccessful bid book for 2006 and winning pitch for 2010, told INSIDER earlier this year that it was “the nature of the game” that bid books get better because of FIFA’s heightened expectations.
Also from the article: All nine candidates are eagerly anticipating the reports into what one bid source described to INSIDER “as the most thorough and exhaustive technical presentation in the history of bidding for a major sporting event”.
US Soccer President Sunil Gulati
Could this be the US? Or would it be England? It’s hard to believe they would be talking about Russia and the article goes on to say Australia has problems with their bid. Also, Chuck Blazer has said that Qatar has yet to come up with a solution to their climate issues for the 2022 games. With some of the problems England had in the earlier stages of the bid I suspect they are talking about the US. Gulati and company have worked extremely hard to secure the bid. This is third World Cup bid Gulati has worked on for the US. One source with ties to US Soccer told IMS that the US Soccer president “would like the 2022 World Cup games in the US to be his legacy to soccer supporters in the US.” Gulati will be 63 in 2022.
The article also claims that FIFA rules demand a moratorium on other major sporting events in a host city during a World Cup. It goes onto say that Australia may be running into trouble with the 2022 bid for exactly that very reason citing AFL games:
There is a suggestion within Australia that the FFA does not consider the AFL season to fall within this criteria, but FIFA are unlikely to view a sport that attracts 40,000 crowds as anything other than a major rival event.
If that is true then the US could be in trouble as well, unless they have already worked out details with Major League Baseball to make sure no games are taking place in the proposed World Cup host cities on game days.
This is a fascinating article filled with information concerning the bid process that will finally be decided in December for both the 2018 and 2022 games.
Comments are closed.
MLB doesn’t work that far out so I would think they could work with the USSF.
2022 seems so far away
I doubt MLB will be a serious concern. It wasn’t a problem in 1994(the MLB strike happened after the WC was over) and they set attendance records at that WC. The only problem that baseball caused in ’94 was that due to the Marlins playing at then-Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami could not host games
Since the Marlins are moving to their own stadium in 2012, and only Oakland still shares it’s large football/soccer venue with a baseball team(and Oakland Coliseum isn’t even in the bid correct?), there will be open stadia across the country.
While there is surely some overlap in the baseball and international soccer fan bases, I doubt MLB will pull people away from the freaking World Cup. As a devoted Marlins and soccer fan, if there was a conflict, I’d go see the perhaps once in a lifetime soccer game and get my baseball fix at one of the other 80 home games that year. Hell I’d probably see any and all games in Miami and catch a USMNT group game somewhere else too(no chance the US group plays in Miami).
I don’t think it’s a schedule overlap thing, more of a “we want every single bit of media attention directed toward our event because we’re the FIFA mafia” type of thing…
@ M – I think you are perfectly spot on. FIFA doesn’t care about the competition anymore. In my opinion it’s a matter of pride (the unhealthy kind) even a tad bit of expansionism. There are two aspects to this. Having a very dedicated media coverage to World Cup games would really increase the US fan base. But in the USA, mandating that others sports stop their activities would backfire and create anger toward soccer and soccer fans. FIFA needs to understand that in the US there ‘sports fans’ more so than there are ‘one sport fans’. Most people I know have 2 or 3 sports that they follow. Think of MN – most people support the Vikings, Twins, & Wild, secondly we have the Timberwolves, and third tier Swarm, Thunder (now 6 feet under). Almost everyone supports at least 2 of these. I’ve found very few people who support only soccer (Thunder/Stars, or whoever else follows). That’s just the reality!