Brazil and Germany to host World Cups

The country that inspired the colors used on the World Cup trophy will indeed host the finals in 2014. Fifa made official what people have known for years when they voted today to award the South American giants the honor of having the games.

Brazil has a little less than seven years to renovate/build stadiums and improve transportation issues, hopefully not at the cost of social programs for their people.

But Brazil was not the only country to earn a World Cup, as 2006 World Cup hosts Germany will again take on the role for the 2011 Women's World Cup. The decision came down to Canada (host of the 2007 U-20 World Cup) and Germany, but really, it was Germany's all along. This should give the German women an even greater chance of a three-pete.

Congratulations to Brazil and Germany.

2014 World Cup - Brazil gets ready to make their pitch

As the only nation in the running to get the 2014 World Cup, chances are very good that Brazil will bring it home on Tuesday when they showcase their bid (the final FIFA announcement is not till Oct 30). However, as exciting as this is, they still need to address a number of issues such as the poor state of the stadiums and even poorer transportation facilities.

The poor state of Brazil's major stadiums could still be a major stumbling-block - but that appears to be the least of the country's problems at present.

'Brazilian Football Confederation' (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira will make the presentation with his nation's air transport system reeling from two major crashes in the last 10 months.

The last two weeks have seen hundreds of delays and cancellations as the recriminations continue following the July 17 crash of a TAM Linhas Aereas flight, which killed around 200 people at Sao Paulo's main domestic airport.

With many major roads in an appalling state and railways suitable only for freight transport, it remains a mystery how players, officials and tens of thousands of fans will be ferried around the vast country.

As if these issues were not big enough, they also have to deal with urban violence in their major cities.

This is a lot to get past however Brazil can take heart in knowing that the ongoing Panamerican Games in Rio de Janeiro have been a very big success. Although Rio is just one city, it is still a starting block from which they can build.

Blatter worst geographer ever

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made some more headlines, this time with his poor geography skills.

FIFA has been rotating the World Cup between all the continents since 2002 when Asia hosted their first games. Europe got 2006, Africa 2010 and South America 2014. So next up should be, um, let me think here, either Antarctica or North America. Since Antarctica doesn't have the money needed to pay off Jack Warner's family business, all eyes should be looking towards CONCACAF.

Well it turns out that all those books we read as kids were wrong as North and South America are the same continent according to Blatter. Who knew. Blatter now wants the 2018 Cup to return to Asia. Although every soccer lover in Australia and China must love this idea, it does seem a bit of an 'up yours' to CONCACAF.

One of the biggest problems with saying North and South America are one is the fact that CONCACAF countries were not invited to bid on the 2014 finals. If Blatter really feels this way, he should have said so about 4 years ago so Mexico, Canada and the USA would have had time to put something together. Changing the idea now is just moving the goal posts.

A lot has been made of Blatter's other statement, "But then for the time being the plan B is South Africa, and the plan C we definitely must have a possibility to go somewhere else, but it must be a natural catastrophe."

Some people think that this combined with the 2018 North American snub points to the idea of America hosting in 2010. South Africa is having some trouble getting up to steam, but Blatter also said that he would only move the finals if there was "a natural catastrophe or whatever, a big change in society — everybody against football." The second part of that sentence allows a lot of wiggle room, but I wonder if South Africa lost the 2010 Cup, would FIFA not look into giving them another chance in 2014.

So here is the wild theory of the day, FIFA moves 2010 to the US, awards 2014 to South Africa and 2018 to Asia. Under Blatter's new rules, North and South America got their finals in 2010, Africa gets theirs in 2014 and onward we go to Australia in 2018.

It sure is fun to speculate.

World Cup 2010, 2014 news

Amid fears of slow movement on the construction side of things, the 2010 Local Organizing Committee has said that the 'nine cities hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup are ahead of schedule.' However, they did point to Cape Town as a site that has faced some 'hiccups' such as legal issues dealing with the environmental effects of the new stadium.

But there is a new reason coming to life for taking the finals away from South Africa and it has nothing to do with stadiums. Instead some are pointing to South African President Mbeki's closeness with Zimbabwe's President Mugabe as reason enough to move the tournament.

They say:

By supporting and sustaining the holocaust unfolding in Zimbabwe, the Government has aligned itself with the ranks of evil. It is one thing to refuse to intervene when cruelty is rife in a neighbouring country, quite another to fuel it with sympathetic words, pathetic policies and required resources. President Mbeki has repeatedly defended his friend in Zimbabwe at international meetings and before his electorate.

Doubtless he is protecting his left flank, but his refusal to condemn Mugabe's murderous regime and willingness to supply it with free electricity, fuel and food used for political purposes paints him as either a knave or a fool. At best he has fallen under the spell of a cunning man prepared to kill every enemy and to destroy the country in his charge in order to sustain his invidious regime.

It will be interesting to see if this picks up any momentum.

But this is not the only blow to hit the 2010 committee today as Ghana football star and South Africa 2010 ambassador Abedi Pele has been hit with match-fixing claims. This Pele, not to be confused with his namesake Pele of Brazil, has been one of the faces of the finals. If these allegations are true, it might call into question just how deeply was Pele involved in the 2010 planning and did he get anything from it.

Looking ahead to 2014, Brazil have made it official that they want the 2014 World Cup. They turned in their bid on Friday. The government of Brazil must provide a series of regulatory guarantees before a July deadline

Colombia removes itself from 2014 World Cup race; South Africa wants to spread the love

Colombia has made it official, they do not want to be considered for host of the 2014 World Cup, leaving Brazil as the sole bidder for the world's biggest event.

Sepp Blatter described Colombia's move last month as a publicity stunt, which caused the country's president to respond, "Before he can say that, he has to get rid of all the mafia who have infected football, and respect Colombia." Looks like both of them were right.

In 2010 news, South Africa wants FIFA to change the rule that requires teams to live in the country during the World Cup. They say this is Africa's World Cup and that surrounding countries should get a bit of fun.

There are two main reasons South Africa wants this. First is to share the fun of having the world cup, but second, and more important in my view, they hope to alleviate some of the demand for housing. If fans follow their team back to Mozambique or Swaziland, then South Africa doesn't have to come up with a place for them to stay or to keep them safe.

This seems like an easy choice for FIFA to make.

Blatter - 2018 World Cup should go to CONCACAF

Sepp Blatter spoke the words that no European wanted to hear and he did so right before meeting with British Treasury Minister Gordon Brown.

"We have decided in the FIFA executive committee that rotation will be installed, and we have made rotation until and including 2014. The executive committee must take a decision whether the rotation should include all the confederations, in which case the 2018 World Cup should be in CONCACAF."

However, he also opened the door to the possible idea of considering both North and South America to be one group. If that were the case, 2014 would be the year for the Americas and Asia might get 2018.

I would guess that either of these scenarios would be hard for most European fans to digest. Also, could Blatter also be suggesting that if CONCACAF gets 2018, Asia could get 2022? That would mean Europe would not host the finals for 20-years. Is this really a possibility?

If 2014 is to be an Americans World Cup, then FIFA needs to make this decision quick to allow the US and Mexico time to come up with a plan (the decision will be made in November). I would guess it is a bit late for either country to really put something great together, but at least they would have a chance.

That said, if 2018 is awarded to CONCACAF, it will be the US's to lose. Mexico would probably make a play for it, but they would be hard pressed to pull it away. Their big advantage might be pointing the popularity of the sport in the two countries, but that didn't keep the finals out of the US in 1994, so it probably would not work in 2018.

US wants 2018 World Cup

Just as England was getting ready to pick their mascot for the 2018 finals, word comes that the young upstart known as America wants to cool their plans.

US Soccer has voted to explore a 2018 World Cup bid, setting the stage for a possible showdown between the two countries. U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, who played a major role in the 1994 World Cup, wants to make magic happen twice., but it will not be easy.

If all goes as planned, the World Cup will not be in Europe for 2010 or 2014. To ask those in Europe to travel off their home continent for a third consecutive final might just be too much to ask.

However, there is one factor that might make it easy for FIFA's to ask so much out of the Europeans, money. The 1994 World Cup is still the best attended in history and made everyone involved huge amounts of profit, and the US has only improved their spacious, luxury box filled stadiums since.

Add to it that it will have been over 20-years since the finals were played in CONCACAF and you might just have the makings of an upset.

That said, at least one person is suggesting that the true goal for US Soccer is 2014, not 2018. As the theory goes, the US would not look good if they made a play for 2014, which has been promised to South America (ie Brazil), but they know, like everyone else, the problems Brazil is facing when it comes to stadiums (they don't have any the meet FIFA's standards). So the idea is they get their house in order as far as plans and venues and raise their profile. If things don't go well in Brazil, FIFA turns to the US as a plan B, much the way they turned to Mexico in 1986 when Columbia* abandoned the cup.

But enough of the conspiracy talk, 2018 is shaping up to be an interesting race. If this all holds out, we could see two great bids from the US and England not to mention the possibility of a strong bid from Australia (and maybe a few others). It should be fun to watch it all unfold between now and 2012 when the host will be announced.

* edit - originally put down Venezuela instead of Columbia. Oops.