America just arrested soccer

[Trotskilicious]

i mean qatar has never made a world cup and gets a free birth in the tourney by virtue of hosting

i wonder how many games they've won in history actually

[Eulogy]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

the popularity grown every year since 1994, and it doesn't really matter how much the home country is into it because of the tourism

Sure but I don't think america's 1% is dead set on getting the world cup here. NFL exhibition games do about as well.

[Eulogy]

If not better (which I find gross don't get me wrong). Someone should look it up

[Trotskilicious]

they're ranked right now at 99 and yknow there's not more than 125 countries in the world i don't think

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

If not better (which I find gross don't get me wrong). Someone should look it up

maybe you because, like i said, it's not about the home country it's about tourists

1994 world cup matches were played in full stadiums

[Eulogy]

Anyway didn't this all happen because we had a concocaf guy dead to rights on tax evasion or something and he had bigger fish to hand over? Not that weird or nefarious.

[Trotskilicious]

NFL exhibition games? are you like

[Eulogy]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

maybe you because, like i said, it's not about the home country it's about tourists

1994 world cup matches were played in full stadiums

Yes I went to one at soldier field. But again. NFL preseason games also tend to sell out. We don't need the world cup to make money off of sports stadiums.

[Sonic Johnny]

Yeah I can see that. I guess a certain amount of it is probably reflexive to the volume of it on my facebook feed in the last 12 hours but it just strikes me as one of those incredible glaring hypocrisies that people were celebrating "bringing down" FIFA like it was some kind of victory for the people against multinational corruption (I know this isn't what either you or trots was saying) and it's just like... why don't I see dozens of people in my facebook feed pushing for Goldman Sachs or Rio Tinto or News Corp to have to be held accountable for their money laundering and tax dodging? Why is soccer the thing they wanna wave about? Same way people get all up in arms about free speech when it's an opportunity for criticising Islam but when SBS sacks a journalist for expressing his opinions about Australia's actions in WWII nobody gives a shit?

tl;dr i'm not actually against the turn of events or disagree with any of what you guys are saying, i'm just frustrated with idiots.

Also same as trots I am high and ranting.

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

We don't need the world cup to make money off of sports stadiums.

holy shit how myopic are you

[Trotskilicious]

like it's not just about a person going to a fucking game it's about MILLIONS OF TOURISTS MILLIONS AND MILLIONS

[Eulogy]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

like it's not just about a person going to a fucking game it's about MILLIONS OF TOURISTS MILLIONS AND MILLIONS

So you think these arrests happened because the U.S. wanted the 2022 World Cup

Ok.

[Trotskilicious]

there's more tourists then there are tickets, even. people travel to the world cup to watch games in bars. it's a HUGE DEAL

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

So you think these arrests happened because the U.S. wanted the 2022 World Cup

Ok.

how is this outside the realm of possibility?

[Eulogy]

Because one thing has nothing to do with the other, for one. And because a relocation from Qatar doesn't guarantee that it's held here.

And I think all american arrests were related to concacaf and not related to the Qatar decision directly. Did you actually read anything about this or

[Trotskilicious]

boy you're just the worst

[Eulogy]

Maybe come back when you're not high

[duovamp]

Can't we just enjoy the fact that the US actually did what's right when nobody else would/could?

[Trotskilicious]

nobody's stopped qatar

[Eulogy]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

nobody's stopped qatar

I don't think I could bring myself to watch it. I dunno what else I can do.

[Eulogy]

Not buy Budweiser or coke but I already don't.

[Trotskilicious]

i think we're just hopeful that this is just the first domino

[Bread Regal]

the US was the second favorite for 2022. In fact I think most were expecting us to win it.

[Trotskilicious]

there's no justification for it unless it was bribery

[MyOneAndOnly]

nobody believes that countries are awarded the World Cup because they somehow deserve it. Even the fans (especially the fans) understand that it's rigged and that the host country has to buy it with bribes.

In that sense it's no different from the Olympics, which is why you see the winter Olympics held in Southern Russia and the summer games held in China in one of the most polluted cities on earth. From an economic perspective I have to question whether it makes any sense at all for the USA to host either, unless it doesn't require billions of dollars in publicly funded infrastructure. The last time an Olympics was held in the USA, for instance, the taxpayers literally paid to build privately owned ski resorts for Mitt Romney's millionaire friends.

The fact that a small country like Qatar is spending an insane amount of money to build stadiums and infrastructure, which will be rotting and vacant immediately following their World Cup, only shows how bankrupt the whole thing is. What does the tourism matter those weeks when the cup is played if for the next two decades the host country's citizens have to live in the wreckage?

[duovamp]

Kickbacks are one thing. Every mayor and council rep in Americal would be in jail for it. Fraud is another beast.

[duovamp]

And since when was "Well someone else does it" acceptable anyway?

[Eulogy]

I thought the salt lake games were objectively not a disaster? Or was that just a Romney talking point I never followed up on?

World Cup is a different beast than the Olympics. It would require zero infrastructure projects in the u.s. Multiple cities. We have enough with large enough stadiums.

[Eulogy]

Logistics would be an issue but it would be doable. And we aren't the only country this is true for.

[vixnix]

cf Brasil