Why Japanese bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup was rejected
A news article recently stated that the Japanese bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup was rejected by the governing body FIFA because they felt that the cup should be hosted in Europe and told Japan to try for 2022. Isn’t football supposed to be the only truly international sport which knows no race or colour? For what reason was the World Cup hosting to stay in Europe in 2018.
Football is played in almost every country in the world; the ease of play and the relative low cost of setting up and playing a game all lend a hand to its popularity. For instance living in the Middle East I saw that most everyone there was football mad and it was on TV all the time on some channel or the other. It is just as popular in Europe and Asia and even in America where soccer is slowly taking off. One thing that most everyone that watches football agrees on is that the FIFA World Cup is the crowning glory of the football world and everyone loves to watch games played in the World Cup. The excitement and intensity of cheering for your country’s team and also cheering for the other team, leads the game to have a truly international feel with so many countries playing in the World Cup now that almost everyone has a reason to cheer.
Why is it then that the FIFA president told Japan to not put in their bid for 2018 and concentrate on 2022 instead? “Confirming Japan's decision to focus on trying to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup, JFA president Motoaki Inukai suggested that FIFA is keen for the 2018 tournament to be held in Europe."We were told European countries would be in a fierce tussle for 2018 and that aiming for 2022 would the best choice," he said,” (BBC). How is that fair but still Japan listened to him by bowing out of their 2018 bid to concentrate on their 2022 bid instead. Why can’t Japan be involved in the fierce tussle that the president mentioned, it seems that Japan would be a great place to hold the tournament and the amount of tourism that it already gets would reach sky high by the World Cup.
Maybe the Japanese football association listened to him because they felt that if they listened to him now their chances of getting the 2022 bid approved might get better. This all seems to be a dictatorship where the leader says, “No, you can’t do this you have to follow my rules.” What happened to democracy and democratic principles where everyone could vote and see if they wanted the World Cup to be hosted in Europe or if it should be moved to somewhere new like Japan? Japan would be a really cool place to hold the World Cup because it is a tourism hub and people would flock to it like a man dying of thirst would flock to a pool of water. Japan has so much to offer in terms of sights and sounds and a very rich culture to be shared. Why should one man have total dominance over that decision? Shouldn’t it be a FIFA decision to weigh up the options and see who fits hosting in 2018 better and not just think that because the battle in Europe would be fierce Japan shouldn’t even try?
The sheer amount of countries vying for a spot to host the prestigious tournament grows every year; the countries in the running for 2018 are as follows: “Australia, Russia, the United States, Belgium/Netherlands, Spain/Portugal, Qatar, Indonesia and the 2002 co-hosts South Korea are bidding solely for the 2022 event,” (BBC). Now into this fray Japan has been forcibly thrown, when it was doing just fine fighting for a place in the 2018 bid.
Now at least they have more time to ready their armoury and pick their weapons to go head to head with whichever of these numerous countries are in the running. Let’s hope that FIFA president Blatter leaves the Japanese bid for 2022 alone and doesn’t throw a spanner int he works again.
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