[pepsionice]

The 2018 games in Russia might be a problem (I’m giving it a ten-percent chance of getting cancelled). Qatar is different because of the hostile forced schedule change (games ending the week prior to Xmas rather than early August). Clubs throughout Europe don’t like the change of the schedule and want some financial compensation....which FIFA said absolutely no cash reward for changing the schedule.

My humble guess is that six to eight clubs will Europe will just skip out for the Qatar games. If the Germans, Italians and Dutch were to skip...competition goes down an enormous step and viewership would be a problem for any TV network to make a profit. Qatar will fill the stadiums, period.....but if your TV viewership goes down by half...that’s the end of FIFA profits for future games.

[lodi90]

Blatter changed the World Cup bid rules again and is most likely giving the 2026 World Cup to Europe as a party favor to keep them on his plantation. Looks like nothing will happen.

[gusty]

In defense of Russia for 2018, they at least have a football culture and tradition. The game has been strong in Russia for at least a hundred years. The Soviet Union always had a strong team, but seemed to always choke in the late rounds. At least the new stadiums will not go to waste, as Russia's domestic league is in the top ten in the world for quality of play, it is on par with the Dutch Eredivisie and Portugal's Primera Liga. As for Qatar, they are trying to import players from Africa, give them citizenship, so they will not embarrass themselves in 2022.

[bajabaja]

Who believes that the OIC is much different from FIFA?

The WC in Brazil last year saw the building of hundreds of millions in new stadia in cities that cannot support them. The same country with flavelas.

Now they have the OIC boys to play with for ‘16.

It’s almost as profitable as starting a FAMILY CHARITY.