3/22/2021 0 Comments Fifa World Cup Russia 2018
But once the bidding expo began, the normally shy and retiring Abramovich, wearing a tailored charcoal suit rather than his usual jeans, made an unusually enthusiastic show of good cheer.Sepp Blatter and Vladimir Putin ahead of the preliminary draw for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Saint Petersburg in July 2015.Fifas 208 member associations, each governing soccer in their countries, were split between six confederations.
Concacaf, with 35 member associations under its umbrella, was one of them, and it, in turn, reported up to Fifa. Its territory stretched from Panama in the south to Canada in the north, and included the US, as well as all of the Caribbean and the sparsely populated South American countries Suriname and Guyana. ![]() He was also a born politician, able to whip all of his confederations member nations into a reliably unified voting bloc at Fifas annual congresses. That unrivaled discipline gave Concacaf an outsized influence compared with other, larger soccer confederations, which struggled with internal strife and factionalism, splitting their votes, sometimes several ways. In exchange for the generous disbursement of money that spilled down through him from the highest reaches of the sport, he expected his member associations to vote exactly as he instructed. The ExCo vote on where to host both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was to be held in Zurich on 2 December 2010, and with just under six months to go, the Concacaf meeting in Johannesburg was viewed as a critical sales opportunity. Belgium and the Netherlands had teamed up to make up one rival bid; Spain and Portugal another. A host of other countries were battling for the rights to the 2022 World Cup, among them the US, Australia and Qatar. But Englands most formidable adversary for 2018 was without a doubt Russia. Winning the right to host the World Cup, watched by hundreds of millions around the world, would undoubtedly be an effective way to help plant that idea, projecting strength and stability. Most critically, it would boost Putins image among the Russian people. It did not go well. For starters, Russias national soccer team had failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup thanks to a humiliating loss the previous November to lowly Slovenia, a country with a population only slightly larger than the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. Russias presentation, meanwhile, was embarrassingly marred by a glitchy PowerPoint display that failed three times as Sorokin spoke. By comparison, Englands bid team turned in a dazzling performance. A sort of commercial trade show for the World Cup itself, the event provided all nine countries competing for the right to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments the chance to meet delegates from around the world. In particular, it was an opportunity to mingle with nearly every executive committee member. ![]() Subsequently, he supported Putin as a candidate to succeed Yeltsin, and was richly rewarded for his loyalty. Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 and moved to London five years later, after selling off many of his Russian holdings. Unlike many oligarchs who left Russia, Abramovich maintained a close relationship with Putin.
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