Voting for World Cup Sites Is Under Way

The United States is competing against bids from Qatar, Australia, Japan and South Korea. The 2018 event will go to England, Russia or joint bids by Portugal and Spain and the Netherlands and Belgium. The voters will be members of the 24-member FIFA executive committee, because two of those members have been barred from voting because of the latest corruption scandal.
The competing countries made their final presentations to FIFA on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Former President Bill Clinton and the actor Morgan Freeman joined the star soccer player Landon Donovan to make the case for the United States on Wednesday.
President Obama made a video appearance at the American bid presentation, which was broadcast live from Zurich before Thursday’s vote.
The presentation focused on the diversity of the United States, its passion for soccer, preparedness for the World Cup and the country’s ability to assist FIFA in its social mission to use soccer as a unifying global force.
Clinton picked up on this theme, noting that proposed American host cities each have residents from 100 to 150 nations.
“Maybe America’s best claim to this World Cup is that we have the only nation that can guarantee, no matter who makes the finals, we can fill the stadium with home nation rooters,” Clinton, the honorary chairman of the United States bid committee, told FIFA officials.
This process has been extraordinary for several reasons, not the least of which is the two-for-one announcement. FIFA has done it only twice in the past, in 1946 and 1966, but both times, only a single country was bidding for each tournament.
This bidding process has been marred by charges of corruption against 6 of the 24 members of FIFA’s executive committee. Two members have been barred from voting, and some have called for the vote to be postponed, saying it lacks credibility. FIFA has said it will hold the vote as scheduled.
The scandal took off in mid-October when reporters for The Sunday Times of London, posing as lobbyists for American companies, reported that two FIFA executive committee members had offered to sell their votes. As a result, Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti were barred from the sport and fined by FIFA.
The Sunday Times of London also reported that it secretly filmed a former general secretary of FIFA, Michel Zen-Ruffinen, giving the names of officials who could be bribed. The paper reported that he also said the Portugal-Spain bid for 2018 and the Qatar bid for 2022 were colluding on a vote-exchange scheme to enhance their chances.
Bid officials denied the charges. FIFA said it found no evidence of a vote-swapping scheme. But the charges of corruption have continued.
Voting will be done by secret ballot. If a winner does not achieve a majority of votes in the first round, subsequent rounds of voting will proceed with the country with the lowest vote total dropping out and the survivors moving on. This makes the voting even more unpredictable.
“I’m not sure how many people in their own mind have worked through all the permutations on both World Cups if A, B, C, D and E happen,” Sunil Gulati, the head of the World Cup bid for the United States, told reporters Wednesday. “Until that happens, everything is in play.”



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Posted by Darey on 7:07 AM. Filed under feature, football, sports, story . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Feel free to leave a response