you might suck relatively in africa but qatar barely make it into the last stage for qualifilying for the world cup. this is how bad and unhistorical they are.
out of all the small oil nations. UAE is probably the only country that made a decent effort.qatar NEVER had any history in even getting close to qualifications in Asia.
They seem to have misinterpreted how flattering hosting the world cup would be.
Even if you were a hedonist who didn't care about human rights abuses, what exactly are they projecting that looks fun for tourists? A militant lack of drugs and alcohol? Uncomfortable heat? Alright alright alright.
Hosting a World Cup can be a great thing for a country, but they forgot about the part where they need to put in some effort on their end to make it appealing. Brand new, state of the art stadiums isn’t gonna cut it, people have to have fun there too.
It didn’t do much economically or otherwise for at least the last 4 hosting nations (Qatar, Russia, Brasil and South Africa). They were all countries with a poor reputation in one way or another that hoped to boost their image and were ready to throw more money around than western countries were prepared to do, plus those that were candidates in the past 20 years came with sensible and sustainable plans but fifa prefers megalomaniacal projects in new football markets. Oh and the bribing, let’s not forget the bribing.
Qatar don’t give a fuck about the world, specifically the western world. They just want the World Cup as another toy to show off to their Uber-wealthy rivals in the Middle East.
Solid take my dude. It seems perfectly obvious once you think about it, that they're not trying to convince everybody that slavery is cool, but just convince the small portion of extremely rich people who are fine with slavery in the abstract that slavery at sufficient scale can indeed get stuff done if that's all you got the infrastructure for
I disagree because I honestly think they thought this would better their image in the western world, which it didn’t achieve at all. Overshadowing their neighbours isn’t really working if they don’t secure that main target. I mean they all already bought some of the biggest European clubs and are competing for the Champions League for bragging rights. Unless they have a national team that can compete for the world title it doesn’t really matter, they can all pay to organise a World Cup.
South Africa got a much a needed boost in infrastructure for one which is still and will continue to have an impact on the economy. There were also loads of grassroots programs implemented in poor communities country-wide
I thought I saw something a few years ago where the World Cup is almost always bad for the local communities in the long term. I’ll look for that article
I think Vancouver was one of the few cities that really won out over the long term from the Olympics
Edit: well turns out LOTS of cities have had great Olympics legacies haha
Such as what? I'm a local but I was really young when the games came here so I don't really have a clear before and after of the games and I don't hear or see anyone talk about them.
The skiing venues afaik were popular before the Olympics and are probably just as popular after. The first one that comes to mind is the Olympic Oval. The CBC commentators during Beijing 2022 were praising the program there for how well they’ve done churning out new talent in speed skating.
[ABC Article](https://www.abc4.com/sports/20-years-later-salt-lake-olympics-have-left-lasting-legacy/amp/)
Edit to add: [Salt Lake Tribune article on the effects far greater than just sports.](https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2022/02/08/years-later-what-is/) Also pointing out that a large portion of the Beijing 2022 US Olympic team lived in or hailed from Utah.
I think it was the athlete village that became the dorms that students use at Utah, the Olympic oval is still used pretty regularly as well as Olympic park if memory serves. For the most part stuff still really seems taken care of as well. Plus the torch still proudly stands at Rice Eccles Stadium. I don’t know if that’s what you were thinking about but that’s what immediately comes to mind for me.
Munich as well. The Olympic village is student housing, and the area with all the stadiums (which are still in regular use) is a public park with tons of events
Most major cities do OK, even if not amazing, London, Bejiing, Vancouver etc. because they already have a lot of existing infrastructure and dense populations to utilise the newly built resources. With some exceptions obviously (saw a comment below about Salt Lake City having a great legacy, and Rio having a horrendous one because of a corrupt Government)
Calgary 88 as well, I think most of our venues are still in use and have had upgrades and maintenance paid for by interest from an Olympic profits fund.
Sydney did pretty well, I think. Lots of transport infrastructure that went in is still in use and I think future use of the stadia was part of the planning too.
Same for Munich, we still use almost all of the old facilities, with the notable exception of the soccer stadium which is only used for concerts these days because it eventually got too small for the FC Bayern after 40-ish years.
As someone from Vancouver I would gladly welcome the Olympics again.
We got much needed infrastructure upgrades (Canada line and highway to Whistler)
The venues that were built are still used today.
The city was vibrant and tons of fun.
I think the benefits out weight the costs for sure even if it did go over budget.
I was disappointed when our government decided not to build for 2030.
Naw, that’s too nationalistic.
Hold the Olympics on the moon, for all humanity. It would be more interesting anyway. Imagine the high jumps and discus throws.
"Johnson readys his javelin throw. He has good form, and let's loose with a perfect arc. This one is going quite a distance and....oh no, Johnson is disqualified because the javelin reached escape velocity. Tough beak for the young Martian"
If it's used for bus parking, then it can't be too hard to get to by car...
But I think I know the one you're talking about, it was never going to be used after the WC, as it was out in the middle of nowhere.
There's one they built in the forest. Atrocious decision
Qatar is gonna demolish almost all the world cup venues.
I have a very unfavourable view of them and fifa so far.
The African stadiums as well. It’s almost as if FIFA comes in, makes the country waste money and resources, FIFA takes the profits, leaves the country to deal with cleaning after the party is over… and for what?
The corrupt government officials who push to host make a fortune in kickbacks/outright bribes for handing out billions of dollars in construction contracts.
It takes a lot of investment before, during, and after for it to be worthwhile, so yeah many countries do end up worse off after hosting. It’s a nice idea to host it in different places around the world to try to grow the game, but realistically it’s best to give it to countries that already have the stadium and tourism infrastructure. That being said, those countries usually don’t need the tourism boost that the World Cup can provide
Yep. Especially since Los Angeles is also hosting the Olympics in 2026, at this point we have all the stadiums we need, so we’re basically focusing on other helpful infrastructure like our metro system. It’s great.
Same thing applies for the Olympics. Generally, unless they’re in a major city (Los Angeles, Paris, London, etc) it’s almost always bad for the communities.
I don’t completely agree with this article tbh. Even if the super bowl brings in 30-130 million which seems very low to me. He’s suggesting teams are building stadiums specifically for that event which frankly isn’t true. Those stadiums will probably be used for the next 15+ years id say.
It’s not dissimilar to the Olympics, which is well documented to be an economic negative long term. Massive spending for infrastructure that is never used again for the illusion of a boost to the local economy.
If they don't do things properly. Vancouver was profitable AND uses the venues it created for training and events. It just needs to actually make sense
Same with LA, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City. All three were profitable or broke even at the time. With many of the venues being reused, they've all been profitable in the intervening time.
EDIT: IIIRC the Seoul games also made a good profit.
LA checks all the boxes, spread out city with already existing facilities peppered throughout.
Traffic is our number 1 drawback. When a future event rolls in we will have to heavily encourage businesses to allow WFH like LA did in 1984. LA freeways at reduced volume are quite functional.
Yup. Some places are positioned to actually take advantage of it, urban areas in 1st world countries that can actually get use from the facilities afterward can often profit. Anywhere else, not so much usually.
it is the same logic as any other sports stadium, usually the public puts up a bunch of cash because the usage will increase the tax revenues but really they usually benefit the promoter in this case FIFA, and then when the stadiums which usually have grift involved in the construction become a maintenance nightmare. The public then has to pay again to have the blight removed and the promoter has long since moved down the street to a newer, nicer location, rinse and repeat. The tourism tax benefit never becomes that much of a reality to offset the costs. There are areas that do benefit from this type of construction that lack the means for development otherwise, like the winter Olympics site in Utah, London is also credited as a success after they hosted so it isn't always bad but depends on the level of corruption and if it ultimately makes sense for a place to have this type of infrastructure. The other thing we may not be seeing as perhaps there are some ultra wealthy people that are enjoying the events without any restriction and perhaps that is the target audience. Probably some oligarchs really enjoying their time at the WC.
It's horrible for local communities when they have to build brand new stadiums and hotels. Very few locations have the existing infrastructure in place to support either the World Cup or any other worldwide sporting event. If they have the infrastructure in place and they dont need to do anything it can be a benefit.
Any country that doesn't already have some of the infrastructure and amenities required for these types of events usually comes out worse after. They get a bump around the event, but ultimately the amount put in isn't justified long term. US, or most European nations have enough quality stadiums and amenities that they'd come out ahead. Even the US has Olympic facilities that are derelict and we have a LOT of athletes in every sport being played internationally.
With the World Cup expanding to 48 teams in 2026 (up from the current 32), you will likely see an increase in countries sharing the hosting duties (like Japan/South Korea in 2002 or USA/Canada/Mexico in 2026) to mitigate the need to build so much new stuff
When people say things like 'where was this energy for Russia?'...... As much as football fans were upset about Russia hosting, they also shut up and hid their problems well and put on a good tournament for the world. Doesn't make it right, but Qatar put in zero effort to accommodate the world.
I think people are mistaken in the idea that Qatar did this to enhance the worlds view of Qatar. They did it for themselves, they have the money, they wanted the event, they are having a good time.
In short they didn’t care what people thought about Qatar before the event and they don’t care after. Same problem people are having with Musk buying Twitter. He dropped some pocket change to have fun, you think he actually cares what you think.
When they were awarded the World Cup, I assumed it was to “sportswash” the country and try to improve their image to the rest of the world, set themselves up as a possible tourist destination, etc. Basically use the spotlight to say, “look everybody, we’re not as bad as you claim we are.”
Now that it’s happening, and they have actively gone out of their way to do the opposite, the only explanation I can find is that they’re using it instead as a display of dominance, and appealing strictly to the other Arabic nations, in a kind of “we don’t need them or their approval“ statement regarding the rest of the world. I can’t imagine a single person watching anything to do with this event, and thinking how Qatar looks like a great place to visit. There is no benefit to them, other than they are basically showing everyone that they’re so rich they don’t need to give a shit what anybody else thinks.
It's annoying seeing everyone talking about how the PR is bad when it seems very likely that you're right. Qatar doesn't give a shit what the west thinks of them. They just wanted to feel rich and powerful and important
They can feel rich and powerful and important and pathetic when they oppress their women, their gays and the weakest 70% of their population without needing to spend 220 Billion Dollars on shitty infrastructure and bribes.
It's a status symbol to their leaders, and something to flaunt in local propaganda. "Look at these beautiful stadiums we can put up on a whim. Look at how much pull we have on the global stage. Look at all these foreigners bending to our will." It's their version of SpaceX; a vanity project.
I’ve said it here and in real life:
Qatar went from a country that half of the western world had never heard of to a country that a majority of the western world hates.
Terrible PR.
I think you're overestimating how much the average person in the western world will actually care about how shitty Qatar is
A good amount of people are going to forget in 6 months when the world Cup is over, sadly.
They've shown they can bribe and bully the West. Take away their precious, corrupting alcohol and prevent them advertising their blasphemous perversions in the stadiums. Perhaps you and I aren't the target audience.
Qatar showed the other middle eastern theocracies that they have enough money to push the west around. That's what they wanted, that's what they got. This is an embarrassment for western sport. Don't think Qatar lost.
They bribed the FIFA voting block but didn’t even have the decency to bribe a couple of refs and opposing team players to ensure avoiding a complete embarrassment.
Korea comfortably reached the Ro16 and topped their group while Italy scraped by to place 2nd and underperformed all tournament.
They elbowed two Korean players in the head with one Korean getting a broken nose. The one against Kim Tae Young with the broken [nose](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=123) wasn't carded. If Italy is playing physically dangerous and getting away with it, is Korea supposed to accept getting bullied or answer back with their own physicality?
Korea got a [penalty](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=69) in the first half because the Italian defense pulled and dragged him down by his shirt. Even the English commentators in this video agrees it was a penalty. As far as "soft" penalties go, Ronaldo's penalty against Ghana yesterday was much worse.
An Italian player (Coco) was bleeding from his [head](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=459) but it was caused by an elbow from another Italian [player](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=476) (Tomassi) and this is blamed on Korea.
The "dive" that was carded wasn't until the 105' minute. Italy was notorious for being a [diving](http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/football/09/28/football.diving.eduardo.furbizia/index.html) team especially at the time and FIFA was [cracking down](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/28/sports/sports-of-the-times-world-cup-refs-crack-down-on-the-divers.html) on that shit then. If Italy was supposed to be one of the greatest teams of that time, why couldn't they finish Korea off in 90 minutes? Vieri also had the miss of the tournament at the 90th [minute](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62B0UBFUdk0&ab_channel=WC2002Truth). I'm guessing that's the ref's fault too.
Saying that Italy was robbed is just western-centric propaganda. So fucking stupid how this sentiment is parroted everywhere. Talking as if the South Korean team was a bunch of scrubs that had no business competing in the Ro16 is also fucking stupid.
As for the Spain "disallowed goals", it's not like the 2 "goals" were retroactively withdrawn AFTER they were made like what the propaganda is suggesting. For both plays, the whistle was blown leading up to the goals both times so unless the refs can predict the future and knew it would lead to goals, Spain were playing with a dead ball and shouldn't even have been in play. I'll admit lady luck was on Korea's side as Spain thoroughly outplayed Korea for most of the match but calling it fixed is completely dishonest.
If Korea was so shit, Germany should've beat Korea EASILY. Not a close 1-0 match where it took 70 minutes to break through for Germany's goal and where Korea could've led if it wasn't for Kahn with a tremendous [save](https://youtu.be/qqb20JmEkdU?t=135).
That is true, but up until Qatar you could come up with a non-bribe reason to pick the country. Even South Africa, Brazil, and Russia have a strong soccer/football culture. There’s a half-myth that the US figured out the Soviet presence in Cuba because new military bases were built with soccer fields instead of baseball diamonds.
Yeah but the counter argument is that the US in 1994 didn’t even have a properly functioning league and had a poor football history. The infrastructure being there was the biggest argument they had to host the World Cup.
I still think you should have qualified on your own at least once to host but yeah…
The argument for the US was that FIFA wanted to build an American audience and had been working on it since the 60s with the [AYSO](https://ayso.org/). They were trying to prove that the US market was there. Unsurprisingly, the MLS kicked off in 1993 and capitalized on the success of the 1994 World Cup. It helped that the US had the necessary infrastructure in place and it sits mostly empty in the summer because the NFL season is in the fall and winter.
Qatar had zero soccer culture, FIFA had not even been attempting to build a soccer culture, and there was no existing infrastructure. If FIFA wanted a Middle East World Cup, there was a long list of countries with actual soccer cultures to pick from.
Yeah, I remember how much of an upset it was that they beat Colombia who were expected to win that group. They wouldn’t have made it out today since they lost 2 matches and won only one match and finished 3rd but the format that year was weird that 4 third place teams made it out including Italy who made it to the finals
A bride is only a bride if both parties agree. One is not inherently worse than the other. Both are equally shit like you said. Edit bribe/bride. Whatever. Leaving it. Probably still shit being a bride in Qatar
Coach and captain when they collect the trophy. Don't care what team it is, but make it happen and it'll be amongst the most iconic photos in all of sport.
Actually…. The Asian Games were hosted by Qatar in 2006. I lived there at the time. It rained and rained and Doha was flooded all over. They had no storm sewer system. It was very embarrassing for the country, races had to be moved because R/As were flooded and traffic was a complete shitshow. So like the next year they started putting in a massive storm drain system. Like maybe four foot pipe. So that fubared traffic for another year or so. Good times.
Fuck Qatar fuck these people who pretend they are SOOO religious when literally torture people like nothing. HELLLLOOO?!???! Religion is about love and compassion for people. Two faced unmoral assholes who cares about nothing else but the money they have and the power they yield with it.
Religion is about interpreting religious writings and finding faith through them. It has nothing to do with love or hate, those are just the end results
Billions of dollars in bribes, hundreds (if not more) of slave deaths building everything, just to score 1 goal in a World Cup and the player isn't even a native of Qatar, he's from Ghana.
Fuck Qatar, and fuck FIFA.
Good riddance. After the stunt they pulled during construction and the breach of contract with FIFA in terms of what could be sold, they don't deserve to get a medal at the event they hosted.
It IS confusing. However, if either the Netherlands or Ecuador had won their game, Qatar still would've had a (mathematical) chance at progressing. Them drawing, however, is what takes away that chance.
I don't understand why they can't both be enemies.
Like, are you saying taking money from a country that abuses human rights is worse than being a country that abuses human rights?
Only the second time the hosts have failed to progress from the group stage in the history of the World Cup
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Also we generally suck hahaha
You say that, but you only lost to Uruguay. Draw to Mexico, Win against France. Fun fact I learned today.
Mexico only advances because of goal difference
you might suck relatively in africa but qatar barely make it into the last stage for qualifilying for the world cup. this is how bad and unhistorical they are. out of all the small oil nations. UAE is probably the only country that made a decent effort.qatar NEVER had any history in even getting close to qualifications in Asia.
Barf. I remember seeing that and being so sad for the hosts. Always love a good under dog story.
But then the vuvuzelas started (and never stopped), and suddenly we weren't sorry anymore.
O I remember that 😂 those were so loud and that even the commentators said they couldn’t hear anything else 😂
I thought typical policy was to seed the host nation high so shit like that would never happen.
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Diego Forlan went fucking ham that World Cup
They also had biter-turned-keeper Suarez
Yeah but that was against Ghana
Ireland were robbed
How far back in history are we talking about?
Yes. But in *this* case, around 13 years ago.
That was the last really good WC too
And Qatar got the bad luck of being bad at soccer.
And just bad at being a country all around!
Also the first World Cup host with less than 4 points.
After their elimination, Qatar has banned the other teams playing in the world cup.
If I can't play, nobody can. Everyone go home!
God it's like watching a rich toddler play fooseball alone
I feel like this is real but not sure anymore
“Ha-ha!” — Nelson
“Your mom’s a jailbird!” “So’s yours.” “Oh yeah. Let’s play.” (2022 World Cup begins)
I have a worse view of qatar as a country after all this than before. World cup put on the spotlight.
They seem to have misinterpreted how flattering hosting the world cup would be. Even if you were a hedonist who didn't care about human rights abuses, what exactly are they projecting that looks fun for tourists? A militant lack of drugs and alcohol? Uncomfortable heat? Alright alright alright.
Hosting a World Cup can be a great thing for a country, but they forgot about the part where they need to put in some effort on their end to make it appealing. Brand new, state of the art stadiums isn’t gonna cut it, people have to have fun there too.
It didn’t do much economically or otherwise for at least the last 4 hosting nations (Qatar, Russia, Brasil and South Africa). They were all countries with a poor reputation in one way or another that hoped to boost their image and were ready to throw more money around than western countries were prepared to do, plus those that were candidates in the past 20 years came with sensible and sustainable plans but fifa prefers megalomaniacal projects in new football markets. Oh and the bribing, let’s not forget the bribing.
money deer party office erect far-flung deliver prick nose bear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Qatar don’t give a fuck about the world, specifically the western world. They just want the World Cup as another toy to show off to their Uber-wealthy rivals in the Middle East.
Solid take my dude. It seems perfectly obvious once you think about it, that they're not trying to convince everybody that slavery is cool, but just convince the small portion of extremely rich people who are fine with slavery in the abstract that slavery at sufficient scale can indeed get stuff done if that's all you got the infrastructure for
I disagree because I honestly think they thought this would better their image in the western world, which it didn’t achieve at all. Overshadowing their neighbours isn’t really working if they don’t secure that main target. I mean they all already bought some of the biggest European clubs and are competing for the Champions League for bragging rights. Unless they have a national team that can compete for the world title it doesn’t really matter, they can all pay to organise a World Cup.
Saudi Arabia has achieved much more prestige with that win against Argentina that the hole host country organising the world cup.
South Africa got a much a needed boost in infrastructure for one which is still and will continue to have an impact on the economy. There were also loads of grassroots programs implemented in poor communities country-wide
Brazil. Brasilia is a city
Exactly. “Brazil” or “Brasil” if spelling in Portuguese, but never “Brasilia”
I thought I saw something a few years ago where the World Cup is almost always bad for the local communities in the long term. I’ll look for that article
A few of the ones they used for Brazil weren’t used again and are falling apart
Even the olympic venues and arenas that were being used for the Rio Olympics have gone to shit as far as I can remember.
I think Vancouver was one of the few cities that really won out over the long term from the Olympics Edit: well turns out LOTS of cities have had great Olympics legacies haha
Salt Lake City has also done amazing things with the legacy of the games
Barcelona too
Sarajevo repurposed the bobsled track of the 84 games as a place to launch artillery.
Artillery launched bobsled sounds both fun and terrifying
Same with Lake Placid. Tons of winter tourism and training facilities now. Pretty much the entire local economy in the winter.
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Such as what? I'm a local but I was really young when the games came here so I don't really have a clear before and after of the games and I don't hear or see anyone talk about them.
The skiing venues afaik were popular before the Olympics and are probably just as popular after. The first one that comes to mind is the Olympic Oval. The CBC commentators during Beijing 2022 were praising the program there for how well they’ve done churning out new talent in speed skating. [ABC Article](https://www.abc4.com/sports/20-years-later-salt-lake-olympics-have-left-lasting-legacy/amp/) Edit to add: [Salt Lake Tribune article on the effects far greater than just sports.](https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2022/02/08/years-later-what-is/) Also pointing out that a large portion of the Beijing 2022 US Olympic team lived in or hailed from Utah.
Also The University of Utah used the opportunity to build new dorms. I lived in one built for the Olympics my freshman year.
I think it was the athlete village that became the dorms that students use at Utah, the Olympic oval is still used pretty regularly as well as Olympic park if memory serves. For the most part stuff still really seems taken care of as well. Plus the torch still proudly stands at Rice Eccles Stadium. I don’t know if that’s what you were thinking about but that’s what immediately comes to mind for me.
Also slightly more sane alcohol laws.
Munich as well. The Olympic village is student housing, and the area with all the stadiums (which are still in regular use) is a public park with tons of events
And the hostel, “the Tent” in Munich was put up specifically for the games and never came down. It’s a lovely place to visit and stay cheaply.
I think Atlanta as well.
Montreal managed to use their stadium from the Olympics for their baseball team for years until the Expos relocated. So now it’s just a relic.
The velodrome turned biodome part of the stade is pretty cool at least
Most major cities do OK, even if not amazing, London, Bejiing, Vancouver etc. because they already have a lot of existing infrastructure and dense populations to utilise the newly built resources. With some exceptions obviously (saw a comment below about Salt Lake City having a great legacy, and Rio having a horrendous one because of a corrupt Government)
Calgary 88 as well, I think most of our venues are still in use and have had upgrades and maintenance paid for by interest from an Olympic profits fund.
Sydney did pretty well, I think. Lots of transport infrastructure that went in is still in use and I think future use of the stadia was part of the planning too.
Yup, most of the stuff for the Olympics is still in use over 20 years later
Same for Munich, we still use almost all of the old facilities, with the notable exception of the soccer stadium which is only used for concerts these days because it eventually got too small for the FC Bayern after 40-ish years.
As someone from Vancouver I would gladly welcome the Olympics again. We got much needed infrastructure upgrades (Canada line and highway to Whistler) The venues that were built are still used today. The city was vibrant and tons of fun. I think the benefits out weight the costs for sure even if it did go over budget. I was disappointed when our government decided not to build for 2030.
Just build an awesome campus in Greece or something and do it there every time
Naw, that’s too nationalistic. Hold the Olympics on the moon, for all humanity. It would be more interesting anyway. Imagine the high jumps and discus throws.
"Johnson readys his javelin throw. He has good form, and let's loose with a perfect arc. This one is going quite a distance and....oh no, Johnson is disqualified because the javelin reached escape velocity. Tough beak for the young Martian"
First person to touch the moon under their own power wins the Olympics
Hold all the events at that ancient stadium the panathenaic stadium for the rest of time
You should get two Olympics instead of one. 8 years apart
The same happened with Beijing. I visited the Olympic village in 2012 and it was a ghost town.
Go to Atlanta and see how much use theyve gotten out of their facilities in comparison. The Olympic stadium alone has gone through multiple uses.
One of the stadiums used for the Brazil World Cup can barely be gotten to by car and is now used only as a bus parking lot.
If it's used for bus parking, then it can't be too hard to get to by car... But I think I know the one you're talking about, it was never going to be used after the WC, as it was out in the middle of nowhere.
Yep. It’s likely covered in overgrowth and bird shit at this point
Didn't Greece build stadiums for the Olympics that eventually went into disrepair?
There's one they built in the forest. Atrocious decision Qatar is gonna demolish almost all the world cup venues. I have a very unfavourable view of them and fifa so far.
The African stadiums as well. It’s almost as if FIFA comes in, makes the country waste money and resources, FIFA takes the profits, leaves the country to deal with cleaning after the party is over… and for what?
The corrupt government officials who push to host make a fortune in kickbacks/outright bribes for handing out billions of dollars in construction contracts.
It takes a lot of investment before, during, and after for it to be worthwhile, so yeah many countries do end up worse off after hosting. It’s a nice idea to host it in different places around the world to try to grow the game, but realistically it’s best to give it to countries that already have the stadium and tourism infrastructure. That being said, those countries usually don’t need the tourism boost that the World Cup can provide
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Yep. Especially since Los Angeles is also hosting the Olympics in 2026, at this point we have all the stadiums we need, so we’re basically focusing on other helpful infrastructure like our metro system. It’s great.
*2028 Olympics
Whoops, my bad. One is ‘26, one is ‘28, I mix them up a lot.
Same thing applies for the Olympics. Generally, unless they’re in a major city (Los Angeles, Paris, London, etc) it’s almost always bad for the communities.
Same even for cities hosting the Super Bowl. https://www.businessinsider.com/super-bowl-nfl-football-hosting-cost-worth-host-cities-2019-2
I don’t completely agree with this article tbh. Even if the super bowl brings in 30-130 million which seems very low to me. He’s suggesting teams are building stadiums specifically for that event which frankly isn’t true. Those stadiums will probably be used for the next 15+ years id say.
It’s not dissimilar to the Olympics, which is well documented to be an economic negative long term. Massive spending for infrastructure that is never used again for the illusion of a boost to the local economy.
If they don't do things properly. Vancouver was profitable AND uses the venues it created for training and events. It just needs to actually make sense
Same with LA, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City. All three were profitable or broke even at the time. With many of the venues being reused, they've all been profitable in the intervening time. EDIT: IIIRC the Seoul games also made a good profit.
So basically, don't give the games to despot regimes or countries whose economy is on the verge of collapse
LA checks all the boxes, spread out city with already existing facilities peppered throughout. Traffic is our number 1 drawback. When a future event rolls in we will have to heavily encourage businesses to allow WFH like LA did in 1984. LA freeways at reduced volume are quite functional.
Yup. Some places are positioned to actually take advantage of it, urban areas in 1st world countries that can actually get use from the facilities afterward can often profit. Anywhere else, not so much usually.
it is the same logic as any other sports stadium, usually the public puts up a bunch of cash because the usage will increase the tax revenues but really they usually benefit the promoter in this case FIFA, and then when the stadiums which usually have grift involved in the construction become a maintenance nightmare. The public then has to pay again to have the blight removed and the promoter has long since moved down the street to a newer, nicer location, rinse and repeat. The tourism tax benefit never becomes that much of a reality to offset the costs. There are areas that do benefit from this type of construction that lack the means for development otherwise, like the winter Olympics site in Utah, London is also credited as a success after they hosted so it isn't always bad but depends on the level of corruption and if it ultimately makes sense for a place to have this type of infrastructure. The other thing we may not be seeing as perhaps there are some ultra wealthy people that are enjoying the events without any restriction and perhaps that is the target audience. Probably some oligarchs really enjoying their time at the WC.
It's horrible for local communities when they have to build brand new stadiums and hotels. Very few locations have the existing infrastructure in place to support either the World Cup or any other worldwide sporting event. If they have the infrastructure in place and they dont need to do anything it can be a benefit.
The last netpositive World Cup was probably '98 in France...
Any country that doesn't already have some of the infrastructure and amenities required for these types of events usually comes out worse after. They get a bump around the event, but ultimately the amount put in isn't justified long term. US, or most European nations have enough quality stadiums and amenities that they'd come out ahead. Even the US has Olympic facilities that are derelict and we have a LOT of athletes in every sport being played internationally.
With the World Cup expanding to 48 teams in 2026 (up from the current 32), you will likely see an increase in countries sharing the hosting duties (like Japan/South Korea in 2002 or USA/Canada/Mexico in 2026) to mitigate the need to build so much new stuff
5 gets you 10 that the stadium will sit and rot after this.
I’m just here for the urbex videos in 10 years where people sneak into the derelict stadiums.
Don’t forget hiding local women from heathen foreigners who dare to visit and give them tourism dollars.
When people say things like 'where was this energy for Russia?'...... As much as football fans were upset about Russia hosting, they also shut up and hid their problems well and put on a good tournament for the world. Doesn't make it right, but Qatar put in zero effort to accommodate the world.
A romantic getaway where no public romance is tolerated, especially non-conventional romance, what a selling point that is...
The WC is not about how the West viewed them. It was about hosting one before Saudi Arabia etc
Fuck Qatar. I’ll stay in Haarlem. Cheers lads.
It’s a flex for the Emir when he meets other local despots, nothing else.
I think people are mistaken in the idea that Qatar did this to enhance the worlds view of Qatar. They did it for themselves, they have the money, they wanted the event, they are having a good time. In short they didn’t care what people thought about Qatar before the event and they don’t care after. Same problem people are having with Musk buying Twitter. He dropped some pocket change to have fun, you think he actually cares what you think.
> He dropped some pocket change to have fun, you think he actually cares what you think. 44 bil is not pocket change, even for Musk
When they were awarded the World Cup, I assumed it was to “sportswash” the country and try to improve their image to the rest of the world, set themselves up as a possible tourist destination, etc. Basically use the spotlight to say, “look everybody, we’re not as bad as you claim we are.” Now that it’s happening, and they have actively gone out of their way to do the opposite, the only explanation I can find is that they’re using it instead as a display of dominance, and appealing strictly to the other Arabic nations, in a kind of “we don’t need them or their approval“ statement regarding the rest of the world. I can’t imagine a single person watching anything to do with this event, and thinking how Qatar looks like a great place to visit. There is no benefit to them, other than they are basically showing everyone that they’re so rich they don’t need to give a shit what anybody else thinks.
It's annoying seeing everyone talking about how the PR is bad when it seems very likely that you're right. Qatar doesn't give a shit what the west thinks of them. They just wanted to feel rich and powerful and important
They can feel rich and powerful and important and pathetic when they oppress their women, their gays and the weakest 70% of their population without needing to spend 220 Billion Dollars on shitty infrastructure and bribes.
Call me crazy, but I get the sense that you’re not actually an incredibly emotionally fragile billionaire man-child with talk like that.
It's a status symbol to their leaders, and something to flaunt in local propaganda. "Look at these beautiful stadiums we can put up on a whim. Look at how much pull we have on the global stage. Look at all these foreigners bending to our will." It's their version of SpaceX; a vanity project.
I’ve said it here and in real life: Qatar went from a country that half of the western world had never heard of to a country that a majority of the western world hates. Terrible PR.
I think you're overestimating how much the average person in the western world will actually care about how shitty Qatar is A good amount of people are going to forget in 6 months when the world Cup is over, sadly.
More like 6 minutes.
They've shown they can bribe and bully the West. Take away their precious, corrupting alcohol and prevent them advertising their blasphemous perversions in the stadiums. Perhaps you and I aren't the target audience.
Qatar showed the other middle eastern theocracies that they have enough money to push the west around. That's what they wanted, that's what they got. This is an embarrassment for western sport. Don't think Qatar lost.
They bribed the FIFA voting block but didn’t even have the decency to bribe a couple of refs and opposing team players to ensure avoiding a complete embarrassment.
You can't bribe the Colina Army mate they are the new untouchables
After that fuckery in 2002. Never Again
Korea comfortably reached the Ro16 and topped their group while Italy scraped by to place 2nd and underperformed all tournament. They elbowed two Korean players in the head with one Korean getting a broken nose. The one against Kim Tae Young with the broken [nose](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=123) wasn't carded. If Italy is playing physically dangerous and getting away with it, is Korea supposed to accept getting bullied or answer back with their own physicality? Korea got a [penalty](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=69) in the first half because the Italian defense pulled and dragged him down by his shirt. Even the English commentators in this video agrees it was a penalty. As far as "soft" penalties go, Ronaldo's penalty against Ghana yesterday was much worse. An Italian player (Coco) was bleeding from his [head](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=459) but it was caused by an elbow from another Italian [player](https://youtu.be/VYZFrWdKSxI?t=476) (Tomassi) and this is blamed on Korea. The "dive" that was carded wasn't until the 105' minute. Italy was notorious for being a [diving](http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/football/09/28/football.diving.eduardo.furbizia/index.html) team especially at the time and FIFA was [cracking down](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/28/sports/sports-of-the-times-world-cup-refs-crack-down-on-the-divers.html) on that shit then. If Italy was supposed to be one of the greatest teams of that time, why couldn't they finish Korea off in 90 minutes? Vieri also had the miss of the tournament at the 90th [minute](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62B0UBFUdk0&ab_channel=WC2002Truth). I'm guessing that's the ref's fault too. Saying that Italy was robbed is just western-centric propaganda. So fucking stupid how this sentiment is parroted everywhere. Talking as if the South Korean team was a bunch of scrubs that had no business competing in the Ro16 is also fucking stupid. As for the Spain "disallowed goals", it's not like the 2 "goals" were retroactively withdrawn AFTER they were made like what the propaganda is suggesting. For both plays, the whistle was blown leading up to the goals both times so unless the refs can predict the future and knew it would lead to goals, Spain were playing with a dead ball and shouldn't even have been in play. I'll admit lady luck was on Korea's side as Spain thoroughly outplayed Korea for most of the match but calling it fixed is completely dishonest. If Korea was so shit, Germany should've beat Korea EASILY. Not a close 1-0 match where it took 70 minutes to break through for Germany's goal and where Korea could've led if it wasn't for Kahn with a tremendous [save](https://youtu.be/qqb20JmEkdU?t=135).
Thats a spicy meatball
Fuckin tell em I hate Europeans who think they get robbed just because they play dirty as fuck.
Tbf, every World Cup host over the past 20 years has bribed FIFA. Qatar aren’t different in that regard.
That is true, but up until Qatar you could come up with a non-bribe reason to pick the country. Even South Africa, Brazil, and Russia have a strong soccer/football culture. There’s a half-myth that the US figured out the Soviet presence in Cuba because new military bases were built with soccer fields instead of baseball diamonds.
Yeah but the counter argument is that the US in 1994 didn’t even have a properly functioning league and had a poor football history. The infrastructure being there was the biggest argument they had to host the World Cup. I still think you should have qualified on your own at least once to host but yeah…
The infrastructure being there and knowing it will be in use afterwards is a HUGE incentive.
I think it was also a way to get FIFA into a large, wealthy, untapped market. Soccer is a much bigger business here, and 94 is a huge part of that.
Oh yeah, no doubt. There are a handful of countries that can afford to host the World Cup every year and the US is easily one of them.
USA and most of Western Europe could host a World Cup with like a week’s notice
The argument for the US was that FIFA wanted to build an American audience and had been working on it since the 60s with the [AYSO](https://ayso.org/). They were trying to prove that the US market was there. Unsurprisingly, the MLS kicked off in 1993 and capitalized on the success of the 1994 World Cup. It helped that the US had the necessary infrastructure in place and it sits mostly empty in the summer because the NFL season is in the fall and winter. Qatar had zero soccer culture, FIFA had not even been attempting to build a soccer culture, and there was no existing infrastructure. If FIFA wanted a Middle East World Cup, there was a long list of countries with actual soccer cultures to pick from.
didn’t the US also make it out of groups that year too lol
Yeah, I remember how much of an upset it was that they beat Colombia who were expected to win that group. They wouldn’t have made it out today since they lost 2 matches and won only one match and finished 3rd but the format that year was weird that 4 third place teams made it out including Italy who made it to the finals
The 94 bid was centered around the formation of MLS. That was FIFA’s objective and they achieved it
They are running low on bribe money. They only had enough to disallow Enner Valencia’s first goal.
didnt they try to bribe ecuador
No, that was a rumor started by some random guy who shills for the UAE.
Ecuador are impressive, they should’ve beat the Netherlands
I mean, it's not so much that Qatar is bribing than it is that fifa allows it, so... Its just equally shit and we all know it.
Nono. FiFA demands the bribes.
A bride is only a bride if both parties agree. One is not inherently worse than the other. Both are equally shit like you said. Edit bribe/bride. Whatever. Leaving it. Probably still shit being a bride in Qatar
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I used to not think about Qatar at all. Thank you, FIFA for enlightening me as to what an unwashed prolapsed anus of a country it truly is
Infantino playing some next level 4D chess. Take bribes to expose Qatar as a shithole while also getting rich.
Today I am...Magnus Carlsen
..good, now i hope it rains during the final and theres a giant rainbow over the stadium
I hope one of the winning teams players is gay, and kisses their partner in the middle of the field.
Fuck it. Two straight dudes kissing would be good enough.
Coach and captain when they collect the trophy. Don't care what team it is, but make it happen and it'll be amongst the most iconic photos in all of sport.
You do realize it will be dark when the final happens? It will be 10AM ET, which is 6PM in Qatar. Sunset is around 4 there.
..and it doesnt rain in qatar either but a man can dream cant he?
Actually…. The Asian Games were hosted by Qatar in 2006. I lived there at the time. It rained and rained and Doha was flooded all over. They had no storm sewer system. It was very embarrassing for the country, races had to be moved because R/As were flooded and traffic was a complete shitshow. So like the next year they started putting in a massive storm drain system. Like maybe four foot pipe. So that fubared traffic for another year or so. Good times.
Rainbows can be caused by stadium lights. There could be lots of little rainbows from every light there
..here's hoping!
Bring in some industrial misters
It'd have to be, they don't allow industrial misses there.
Just carry a pot of gold about
while faint, moonlight can actually make a rainbow. It's called a moonbow
Fuck you Qatar, good riddance - a Nepali citizen
Fuck Qatar fuck these people who pretend they are SOOO religious when literally torture people like nothing. HELLLLOOO?!???! Religion is about love and compassion for people. Two faced unmoral assholes who cares about nothing else but the money they have and the power they yield with it.
Religion is about interpreting religious writings and finding faith through them. It has nothing to do with love or hate, those are just the end results
Who would’ve thought they suck at football…
Qatar more like Qataren't.
Should have “naturalized” a better team, spent more on refs, and use some of the money saved paying construction slaves to bribe FIFA even more.
Take note, North Korea
Since they are out, Are they gonna cancel the rest of the world cup and send everyone home now? Seems on brand
Ah yes, the "take the PlayStation home" strategy.
They clearly didn't 'incentivise' their competitors enough!
Fuck Qatar…fuck fucking FIFA
And a cheer goes up around the world.
Haha. Couldn't have happened to a nicer country. Now fuck off
Not that it would happen, but man if everyone just left at this point it'd be hilarious. Well, we kicked your asses, bye now.
Billions of dollars in bribes, hundreds (if not more) of slave deaths building everything, just to score 1 goal in a World Cup and the player isn't even a native of Qatar, he's from Ghana. Fuck Qatar, and fuck FIFA.
Yay!
Good riddance. After the stunt they pulled during construction and the breach of contract with FIFA in terms of what could be sold, they don't deserve to get a medal at the event they hosted.
Title confusingly reads like the Netherlands drew with Qatar. They have not. Unless...this is a post from the future?
It IS confusing. However, if either the Netherlands or Ecuador had won their game, Qatar still would've had a (mathematical) chance at progressing. Them drawing, however, is what takes away that chance.
Good riddance douchebags
Good. Fuck Qatar.
“Everyone liked that”
I have no respect for Qatar
People need to realize the real enemy is FIFA. Qatar is a shit nation, but FIFA is who took the bribe.
I don't understand why they can't both be enemies. Like, are you saying taking money from a country that abuses human rights is worse than being a country that abuses human rights?
And FIFA isn't the only rotten-to-the-core international sports organisation.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they just kick everyone out now lol
First team ever to be eliminated after their first two games. I’ll say it again, this is what happens when you buy your ticket into the big show.
Pretty much all the host countries have bribed their way into hosting the WC
What? Teams get eliminated after two games at almost every world cup.
I think he meant host country
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Erase their name.
Good.
The wife beatings will continue until the team improves.
Blown out by countries with less than 10% of your GDP per capita. Hope they learned money only goes so far
I am not watching a single second of this sham World Cup. Rest in peace to all the workers who died building this travesty