I both saw and read the comments of Sepp Blatter, president of FIFA, concerning England's reactions after the 2018 football World Cup was awarded to Russia.
Mr. Blatter said that the English were known for fair play, but in this case, England was a poor loser.
To put matters into perspective :
1. Mr. Blatter has had to discipline two members of the FIFA Executive Committee for taking payments in return for their votes regarding the 2018 and 2022 Cups.
2. More allegations have been made, but Mr. Blatter has not yet responded except to say that everything is in perfect order at FIFA.
3. Every sports newspaper or TV show that I follow has questioned how Russia or Qatar could have won and have speculated about some sort of "arrangement" to promote countries not yet in the World Cup "family" or some other unspoken advantage for Russia and Qatar.
As for England being a sore loser, they were the favorite of the FIFA committees that visited them because of the infrastructure already in place and the financial soundness of their bid.
England has not said it will withdraw from FIFA, but I would almost be pressed to recommend to any developed country that it stop participating in the World Cup bid process. It seems a waste of money to spend 75 Million Dollars or so in a bid process that is skewed against them from the beginning.
All England has asked for is that FIFA articulate its policy, and all of its policy, so that every country that wants to make a bid for a World Cup will at least understand its chance of winning.
For the moment, I would say that it is Mr. Blatter and FIFA that are the losers - losers because of how they have conducted themselves and losers because they do not seem to understand the first thing about fair play.
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