Harty on the 2018 World Cup vote

WELL, I freely admit that right up to the moment Sepp Blatter opened that envelope in Zurich last week I was convinced that football was coming home in 2018.

But in the days that followed and the full extent of our World Cup humiliation was revealed, I believe that if the process is as corrupt as is being painted, why did the FA even enter a bid to host the tournament?

I don’t buy into the theory that the Panorama progamme affected the vote or the crowd trouble in Birmingham the night before the ballot was a factor.

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Without wanting to sound like a stereotypical little Englander, we did have the best bid – stadiums, transport links, hotels, the full works.

In fact, as was said on a number of occasions, everything was in place so much so that we could host a World Cup at a month’s notice.

The thing that really worked against our bid, and something we hadn’t even taken into account, was our lack of oil and gas reserves.

FIFA didn’t change overnight. This has been an ongoing situation for years. I cannot believe that Geoff Thompson, a former high ranking FA official, and a current senior man at FIFA, didn’t have an inkling about what was happening over the last few months. He must have seen that the Russian and Qatar delegations were making all the right moves.

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The FA have wasted £15million on the bid. It’s clear we will never host the World Cup in this country all the time FIFA controls football – it’s as simple as that.

One footnote to the whole saga, I was interested to see David Cameron over in Zurich helping canvass support in order to win the bid.

Although on this occasion, he was unsuccessful, I hope this is an indication of his goverments support for grassroots sport in this country – a far cry from when Mrs Thatcher, et al, sold off countless school playing fields to developers.

l Word reaches me that Worthing Minors Football Club have been told they cannot play their annual and very successful summer tournament at Hill Barn due to health and safety issues.

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I’m sure I’m not alone among people in local youth football in asking the question, WHY?

l Albion fans had a pleasant surprise last week with the announcment of the Amex Stadium season ticket prices.

In some cases, it will be cheaper to watch the Albion at their new home than the price some supporters pay at Withdean.

But, really, despite having to pay out £90million for the new stadium, I didn’t expect anything less.

The Albion have to fill the ground and re-ignite the interest of the lost generation of supporters, and this pricing structure will do just that.

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