The Football World Cup

Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup today, and Qatar the 2022, by FIFA, the International Football Federation. Its president, Sepp Blatter, said that football is educational and that taking the World Cup to these countries will benefit their regions.
I have nothing against either Russia or Qatar. But, I have to wonder why they were chosen. England is the country where football was created, and it has not hosted a World Cup since 1966. It had the best financial package and certainly has the best stadiums already in place. The argument that its having been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games made it an outsider doesn't hold up against the fact that Russia will be home to the 2014 Olympic Games.
As for 2022, Australia has never hosted a World Cup and it is trying very hard to develop football as a major sport in its country. The United States may have made had the weakest argument since it hosted the 1994 World Cup, but to say that its security would have been the weakest of any candidate country seems disingenuous.
So, Russia and Qatar. Both will spend billions on building stadiums and hotels, as well as other needed facilities. We all remember the last World Cup in South Africa and the photos of ghettos without running water or electricity beside abandoned stadiums when the curtain fell on the Cup. Qatar certainly has the funds necessary to carry out its obligations, but how many Pakistani and Philippines guest workers will be exploited in the process?
If that sounds cynical, it is meant to. We have long watched the spectacle of Mr. Blatter, whose FIFA executives have recently been accused of bribe-taking and other corrupt acts, preaching to the world about how it ought to behave and what football means. He's not elected popularly, and he certainly has no humanitarian mandate to save the world. One is tempted to say, thank goodness, because his record to date is mightily unimpressive.
If you doubt that, reflect on the recent Brazilian army attack, including armored vehicles, on drug gangs and hideouts in an effort to clean up one of the world's most dangerous cities, Rio de Janeiro, before the World Cup descends on it in a few years. Another of Mr. Blatter's strokes of genius.