World Cup history is repeating itself, first as grotesque cynicism and then a travesty of what it purports to be.
In 2012 the fateful decisions were taken to award the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively. How those outcomes were reached reeked of sleaze and corruption from the start. A decade later and some of those initial judgements seem almost charitable.
Even by Fifa standards the selection process was a rank exercise in sprinting to the bottom of the financial barrel. Practically half the selection committee were subsequently either banned, suspended or prosecuted for corruption.
But those deals to provide what were even then obvious vanity projects for unscrupulous leadership …
- April 11, 2022
