to host World Cup in 2018, Qatar in 2022
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FIFA President Joseph Blatter announces Russia to host the 2018 World Cup during the announcement of the host country for the 2018 soccer World Cup in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010. (AP / Anja Niedringhaus)
Soccer fans can start booking their plane tickets after organizers announced on Thursday that Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup while Qatar will host in 2022.
The 22-person executive committee of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) voted in Zurich Thursday.
Moments later, FIFA President Joseph Blatter revealed their decision to the world's media.
"The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be organized in Russia," Blatter told reporters.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov spoke on behalf of his delegation.
"You have entrusted us with FIFA World Cup for 2018, and I just can promise, we all can promise, you will never regret it. Let us make history together."
After congratulating the Russian delegation, Blatter turned his attention to the 2022 tournament.
"The winner to organize the 2022 World Cup is Qatar," he said to cheers from the crowd.
Qatar's Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani then took the stage.
"Thank you for believing in change, thank you for believing in expanding the game, thank you for giving Qatar the chance. You will be proud of us and you will be proud of the Middle East, I promise you this," al-Thani said.
England, Belgium/Netherlands, Spain/Portugal and Russia were all in the running for 2018, while the five bidders for 2022 were the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Qatar.
Alleged collusion, corruption, bribery
Considering the prestige and profits associated with hosting the World Cup, "The World is a Ball" author John Doyle said competition to host the upcoming World Cup tournaments was intense.
FIFA has more member countries than the United Nations, Doyle said in an interview Thursday, "because it matters more that you take part in international soccer.
"If you're talking in dollar terms, the countries looking to host the World Cup have 6 to 10 billion reasons to want to," Doyle told CTV's Canada AM.
With potentially billions of dollars up for grabs, Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl said allegations of collusion, corruption and bribery swirling around the world soccer body are hardly surprising.
"FIFA is not really answerable to any government," Wahl said in an interview from Zurich. "They take pride in not being a governmental institution and being outside of politics."
Blatter will often have heads of state coming to him, Wahl added, suggesting that level of influence is ripe for corruption.
Two members of FIFA's executive committee have been suspended by the body's independent ethics panel following an expose in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.
Amos Adamu of Nigeria and Reynald Temarii of Tahiti were both excluded from the decision process after undercover journalists filmed the pair allegedly offering to sell their votes.
More allegations followed, implicating the Qatar 2022 and Spain/Portugal 2018 bid teams in an alleged vote-swapping scheme.
Then, in a move dubbed "unpatriotic" by English bid chief Andy Anson, last week the BBC alleged that the presidents of the African, South American and Brazilian soccer associations all took bribes in the 1990s.
FIFA has promised its own "in-depth investigation" of the vote-selling allegations, but Doyle doesn't think it will ever be "as transparent as it needs to be, simply because it's too powerful."
"There will always be suspicions about how these decisions are made. I think FIFA will make noises about how it will improve things ... but very little will actually happen."
Wahl agreed that fallout from the allegations could be "the legacy of this vote."
"I know that FIFA wants there to be the impression that this is a clean process, but with a lot of people right now there isn't."
Since its inaugural tournament in 1930, FIFA's World Cup has grown in political and economic importance. It is now one of the most-watched television events in the world.
The next World Cup tournament is slated for Brazil in 2014.
