Tuesday 3rd June

It was always a joke, wasn’t it?  In fact the look of surprise, not only on Sepp Blatter’s face but on the whole audience and the commentators was confirmation that he wasn’t at all serious. Qatar? – I mean where the hell was it exactly – somewhere in the Persian Gulf, one of the hottest places on earth in the summer, and did anyone know if they even played football.  Of course it was good that the World Cup  should move out of the safe European and South American countries it was usually held in.  But Qatar was tiny, with a tiny population, women wearing burkas, they had never even qualified before for a final, and one’s initial thought (after it emerged that it was no joke at all) was that bribery had to have taken place.

And of course it is almost certain that it has.  Qatar may well argue that the briber Bin Hamman was nothing to do with their bid, but he apparently used over three million pounds of somebody’s money to secure an impossible deal.

In a way it will now be an easy exit for Sepp Blatter who must realise, that even had no money exchanged hands, Qatar was a ridiculous choice and would have been a disaster.  Now we have to go through the quasi-legal investigation and a hastily convened re-vote, where they will inevitably choose either Iceland or Burkino Faso….