Baghdad looks ahead - to bid for the World Cup

[Champ]

With suicide bombings, kidnappings and fighting in the streets, you would think Iraqis have enough to worry about. But sports officials in the troubled country are discussing a bid to host football's World Cup - and they are asking England for advice about how to go about it.
Preliminary talks have taken place between the Iraqi football association and its Jordanian counterpart about a joint attempt to stage football's showpiece tournament, Crown Prince Feisal al-Hussein of Jordan has revealed.

Germany will host the World Cup in 2006, after England's bid ended in abject defeat, and South Africa in 2010, so the next possible opportunity will be in 2014.

The crown prince, whose elder brother Abdullah is king of Jordan, is in the UK for talks with sports minister Richard Caborn and Lord Coe, chairman of the bid committee for a London 2012 Olympic Games. "A lot depends on what the region is going to look like in four or five years," said Prince Feisal. "The situation at the moment would make any bid ludicrous, but I think the next bid for the World Cup is in three or four years. By then, hopefully things will have improved dramatically."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1320649,00.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Now....This is just plain CRAZY....

Gee, why not hold the Olympics in Gaza??..

I really think that the "leaders" of Iraq should concentrate on more important stuff.. like electricity, fresh water, jobs, cleaning up all that rubble, rights for their women..and oh yeh..maybe they should try to get a "handle" on those pesky beheadings, kidnappings and roadside bombs...first..

[realFedUp]

2. THAT'S one way to get other countries in....

maybe they can bring in their own security
while they're there.

[Flagg]

3. The World Cup is the most viewed sporting event in the world.

The football World
Cup is the most celebrated organised sporting event in the world.



The idea that it could be organized in Iraq even if the country were to stabilize itself overnight is laughable.

Watch closely as the neo fascists in Washington spin this ridiculous piece of propaganda to persuade us that"freedom" is on its way in Iraq.

The American populace is pretty uninformed when it comes to soccer:)

[FightingIrish]

4. If only Iraq and the U.S. show up

we have a good chance of coming in second.

[Voltaire99]

5. Baghdad, ca. 2014: "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart."

The plan, of course, is to have Wal-Marts crowding the mosques by that time, with the good oil-rich Iraqis as broken in spirit and purse as American wage slaves.

Somehow, I don't think it's going to happen. For a Wal-Mart culture to flourish, you need a people who are sustained by mere things, rather than spirituality; by greed and disposability, rather than community and permanence. Not all soil is equally conducive to such weeds.

[NeoConsSuck]

6. You said a mouthful..

Great Post!!

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. The most absurd thing is asking Britain for advice

Those of you not British, or track and field fans, may be unaware of the 2005 World Athletics Championships fiasco.

http://www.sportsvenue-technology.com/projects/2005_athletics/

London, through a combination of greed, apathy and incompetence, had to withdraw its successful bid to stage the 2005 World Athletics Championships, because no-one wanted to build the new stadium. This was after another farce about building a new soccer/athletics stadium at Wembley collapsed (after years of faffing about, they settled for a soccer only stadium - 90,000 seats at a current expected cost of £757 million - or $15,000 per seat. That was the 'cheaper' option).

"The only other occasion that a successful "host" city was unable to stage the athletics championships in their 18-year history was back in 1997 when Athens replaced Mexico City, because of a major earthquake that had hit the Mexican capital."

No such excuse in Britain - just sheer stupidity.

Asking Britain for advice about staging major sporting events (another example - Formula One has just cancelled the British Grand Prix for next year, after years of arguments about money, and mud carparks that turn into swamps whenever it rains) is like asking Dubya for handy diplomacy tips.

[bigbubbabill]

8. What a finacial boon that would be for Iraq!

[Politicub]

9. I wonder which PR firm is spreading this spin

Maybe the same one that promoted the lie that Sadam's army was pulling baby's from incubators in Kuwait in Gulf War I.