Millhouse

Yes, and nobody is clean. Especially, the USA, Israel and the GCC.

The Dean

Israel of course are allocated to the European qualifying groups, where they have done OK in recent years but are unlikely to win a pool, or even finish as a best runner-up or whatever. It might make more sense to divide Asian qualifying into West (i.e. GCC, plus Iran, Iraq, Jordan etc) and East (Japan, North and South Korea, etc) and have two qualifiers from each. Israel could be 'placed' in the Eastern pool to avoid having to play the Arab countries, but would have a much better chance of qualifying.............

britexpat76

They are allowed in here, just don't bring any flags.

http://dohanews.co/aspire-removes-is...er-complaints/

NorthernLad

Oh, the irony....

"The removal of the flag has satisfied some, but a local group said Qatar must go further than that, and revoke its long-standing invitation to Israeli athletes over the nation’s human rights abuses"

britexpat76

You couldn't make it up.........

Bahtatboy

Well for starters the US has laws (the Export Administration Act and the Tax Reform Act) which prohibit and/or penalise boycott provisions and require US taxpayers to report boycott activity. The US Treasury Department draws up a list of countries which require an Israli boycott and, not suprisingly, Qatar's on the list.

These are not laws which are ignored. In October 2010 a US company was fined for activities undertaken by is foreign subsidiaries: the Japanese subsidiary for sharing a freight forwarding certificate stating that a vessel could not stop at an Israeli port during its voyage; the Dutch subsidiary for agreeing not to do business with Israel with a line of credit from an Omani bank; the UK subsidiary for failing to report boycott requests from Dubai.

OriginalSunshine

Reminds me of that "Yes Prime Minister" episode (or was it Yes Minister?) where some numpty decides to seat all the dignitaries to a funeral in alphabetical order

Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon....

OleJanx

And the dim senior policeman, on meeting the delegate from UNESCO who said "Ah yes! Gallant little country!"

OriginalSunshine

Bahtatboy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-millions.html

Qatar World Cup 2022 investigation: former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner and family paid millions

Documents appear to show a senior Fifa official and his family were paid millions by a company controlled by a former Qatari football official shortly after the country won its bid for the 2022 World Cup.

Someone's got their teeth into this...

Bahtatboy

The 10-year-old daughter of a Fifa executive who helped to select World Cup host nations had more than £2 million put into a savings account set up in her name, the Telegraph can disclose.

Antonia Wigand Teixeira, the daughter of the Brazilian representative on the Fifa executive committee, received the money in 2011. Her father, Ricardo, who stepped down from the committee in 2012, has recently moved to Miami after Brazilian police began an investigation into his activities. The disclosure will raise questions about the finances of some Fifa officials who participated in the decision to award Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...o-account.html

martinbkk

Let's say for a minute that more of this stinking pile is dragged out into the open such as to offend a sufficiently large cross section of the globe resulting in a re-bid, which Qatar does not win. What might the likely implications be?

Pongo

Time to ditch FIFA and come up with a new 'brand'

Pongo

http://www.thenational.ae/business/i...cup-2022-plans

Bahtatboy

How much will each match cost?