Thursday, December 02, 2010

Come on England!

You all know I love my football. I've spent the last 25 minutes with tears in my eyes. I am so desperate to experience a World Cup in my lifetime in my own country. If we don't get it this time, I doubt it will ever happen. I'm so proud of all those who have been part of our bid presentation today. I've spent most of it with moist eyes. I don't knw why I get so emotional on occasions like this, but all the presentations have brought home to me what a fantastic World Cup we would host if we were to be awarded it. The host, Eddie Adekafe, was simply brilliant in pulling it together, giving it some grit and emotion. The videos were superb. Prince William may have been a bit wooden, but his very presence was more important. Cameron was superb, speaking with no notes, speaking with conviction and passion - unlike Spanish PM Zapatero who seemed totally wooden. Andy Anson was throughly professional and David Beckham concluded with a fantastic peroration -not a 'y'know' in sight!

What a pity it is that the BBC should have disgraced our bid with that Panorama programme on Monday.

Everyone else has pulled together and thrown the kitchen sink at this bid. It deserves to win. We'll soon find out if it does.

54 comments:

Michael Heaver said...

Come on England!

Richard said...

An investigation into bribery and corruption is "disgraceful"? That's a new one.

Iain Dale said...

The timing was disgraceful. They should have screened it after the bid.

Lady Finchley said...

Right, and Russia's hands are clean. Unfortunately their cheesy presentation has had a much better reception than ours.

Richard said...

"The timing was disgraceful. They should have screened it after the bid." So if they found any evidence of corruption it would have been conveniently "too late" to affect any decision? That's very cynical of you, Iain.

Unknown said...

Thank you BBC for getting your priorities right.

The suggestion that the Panorama program should have been delayed or pulled altogether because it might compromise England's chances with FIFA would be to condone the corruption that it exposed. I'm surprised how many worthy people are prepared to turn a blind eye to the sleazy side of FIFA and the bidding process.

Unknown said...

England have previously won the World Cup playing at home.

It is much more of a challenge to win it away from home and England needs to show it can do that too.

Jimmy said...

"The timing was disgraceful. They should have screened it after the bid."

Like they did with Ashcroft?

Will 883 said...

Prince William was "a bit wooden"?? But I thought one of the key arguments for keeping the royal family was they are trained up for the job from birth!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, we should benefit from the corrupt process before we clean it up. Nice one, Iain.

Lexander said...

Ian, what's disgraceful is that these "official" sods continue to get away with what appears to be completely illegal activities. I think the timing of the programme was perfect. I am a fan of most things you do but still remain puzzled about your liking for soccer. I hope we lost the bid. William can then get on with something far more useful. Toodle pip.

Roger the Shrubber said...

Oh please, Iain, if it was corruption in the Labour Party, and the Beeb timed it's broadcast until after an election, which blogger do you think would be wetting his Marks and Sparks knickers? Corruption is corruption. How will we really know if the broadcast WAS the reason it fails, should it fail?

Unknown said...

Iain - I accept you love the game. I accept you want the World Cup to come to England in 2018. But do you really want investigative journalism to stop, and for injustices to be swept under the carpet, because it relates to a subject you love?

The timing was disgraceful? You are allowing your personal passions to rule over truth, justice, and accountability.

Anonymous said...

I understand ITV will be awarded the exclusive rights to show the games if we win. Sky will get highlights. BBC get nothing.

Anonymous said...

I very much hope that England does NOT win it. I really hope that this week's 'Panorama' programme and the previous 'Sunday Times' exposé will have thoroughly kiboshed any chance of England coming out on top. If that means that football becomes suddenly less popular than chess or synchronised swimming, so much the better.

Perhaps the fact that Putin isn't bothering to 'pimp himself out' in Zuerich means that Russia has already bought enough votes and knows that it's all sewn up. FIFA is as bent as the IOC, and I really don't know why we bother to go crawling for the privilege of throwing money at these loathsome self-elected bandits.

Iain Dale said...

Paul, sigh. You overinterpret what I said. Of course I want investigative journalism to continue. of course I don't want anything swept under the carpet. And none of it would have been if this had been transmitted next Monday instead of last Monday.

The BBC's decision to broadcast this week had nothing to do with truth, justice or accountability. It had everything to do with chasing ratings.

Anonymous said...

We (well, I, anyway!) can only hope that 'Panorama' and 'The Sunday Times' have yet more juice, which they will release after today's result. Ooooh , what larks if they can finally nail Sepp Blatter, and wipe that repellent cat-that-got-the-cream smug grin off his face.

Penfold said...

Are the tax-payers funding this wretched application?
If so why?
Havn't we been taken to the cleaners already with the bloody Olympics, particularly if you are a london ratepayer, and the Dome.

Unknown said...

Iain - Chasing ratings? Or releasing an investigative story at a time to have maxisum impact? An editor of a Sunday paper would do exactly the same to have maximum impact.

You are sore becuase it is very clearly a subject you love. Would you take this view for something else? Should a political scandal be witheld until after an election because it might affect the voters? Your answer at the moment is: if the story is about the political party I support, and if it will negatively affect their chances at the imminient election, then I believe the editor should hold the story until after the election.

Honestly? Is that your position?

Sorry I know the above is a speculative example, but I'm really struggling to follow your logic. But then logic is easily lost when love is involved.

Ian M said...

So if England do get to host the tiurnament, all that they need to win it is a Russian Referee and a Turkish Linesman

Nic said...

Come on Ian, do you really want the World Cup if we have to subdue one of the best things about our country to get it? A free press is the difference between us and Russia, let's not sacrifice that no matter how great hosting 2018 would be!

Bill Quango MP said...

George.. If we already have an Olympic stadium, surely it would make sense to get some use out of it?
Like, maybe for hosting a world cup?

A world cup which won't require anything like the costs of the Olympics. Just the training camps really. And some lucky region, probably Newcastle or Leeds or Blackpool would get a nice bit of transport infrastructure investment.

David Cotton said...

How come all sanity has to go out of the window when it comes to the world cup and football in general?

The timing of the disclosures has made it harder for the implied corruption to be swept under the carpet. The events in ninety minutes will be examined all the more because of what the BBC and the ST have revealed.

If you want cleaner football, then the BBC have done you a favour. If you want the status quo to continue, then by all means criticise the BBC for the timing.

Richard said...

The cost of hosting the World Cup has been estimated at £1bn - and remember that the cost of the Olympics suddenly and mysteriously quadrupled after the UK bid was in the bag. Will the taxpayer get any of that back? I doubt it.

Roger the Shrubber said...

Iain, You're surprised the BBC chase ratings by putting out a doc about the World Cup while everyone's talking about the World Cup?

Remind me when Biteback put out its books about the election, and memoirs.. Wouldn't be when everyone is talking about politics, would it? No one talks about politics in the media during Conference time, do they. Defections don't take place JUST before a conference, do they..

For a supposedly meeja savvy voxpop, you seem to be very forgetful, and hypocritical.

Sres said...

This sums up the bBC for me...

"But we were not just anti-Macmillan; we were anti-industry, anti-capitalism, anti-advertising, anti-selling, anti-profit, anti-patriotism, anti-monarchy, anti-Empire, anti-police, anti-armed forces, anti-bomb, anti-authority. Almost anything that made the world a freer, safer and more prosperous place, you name it, we were anti it."
Antony Jay, Telegraph, July 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557389/Here-is-the-news-as-we-want-to-report-it.html

Grant Tucker said...

@Roger the Shrubber

"Iain, You're surprised the BBC chase ratings by putting out a doc about the World Cup while everyone's talking about the World Cup?

Remind me when Biteback put out its books about the election, and memoirs.. Wouldn't be when everyone is talking about politics, would it?"

What if the BBC had aired their documentary tonight? Are you saying people wouldn't be interested about the World CUp bid on the day it was announced?

WillB85 said...

Don't be so pathetic. Journalists have every right and duty to expose corruption.

You just oppose it because it happens to impact on something you like.

Free media is great, unless it affects Iain Dale. Show some principle.

golden_balls said...

Labour won the Olympics the Tories lost the World Cup. I think that sums it up.

Its Official David Cameron is no Tony Blair no wonder DC left so early.

DespairingLiberal said...

The BBC were simply pointing out that a Russian oligarch and some sheikhs will have handed over truckloads of cash.

Why on earth are you getting so upset about such a deeply corrupt farce? Along with the olympics, the Fifa selection process and the events themselves have become a sick degenerate joke - a farcical overdose of insanely commercialised, drugged up and bent wheeler-dealing.

They have no more connection with the spirit of sport than I do with the Pope of Rome.

Richard said...

"Labour won the Olympics the Tories lost the World Cup. I think that sums it up."

Indeed. Yet another reason to vote Conservative. The sheer waste of money on the Olympics is exactly what you would expect of Labour: other people's money on a vanity project. Sport should be an individual matter - you want to play it, then you support it.

DespairingLiberal said...

Those of you opposed to the European Arrest Warrant (and blaming the BBC for this) should take some time out to watch the Panorama programme - it was excellent - and then think about how much Sepp Blatter and his bent cronies would be suitable candidates to receive such warrants.

In the meantime, perhaps Wikileaks will tell us how much the Russians and Qatar had to pay.

Sres said...

bBC again patting themselves on the back with smug reporting that David Cameron & Prince William failed to deliver the World Cup.

Lapping it up with close ups of their faces before the results where announced.

Unknown said...

I am very concerned as a gay football fan about the fact that homosexuality is still illegal in Qatar.

I want to know what FIFA's and the FA's position is on this- and gay fan's personal safety and freedom if we dare go in 2022.

I am allowed to share a room with my husband, share a bed? hold his hand in public? peck him on the cheek? put my arm around him during a game? hug and kiss him when England score? I am not used to covering it all up and I don't know if I could.

I know Russia will be OK because (and don't laugh) they hosted Eurovision and it was fine.

Jules Wright said...

come on folks, let's show some perspective. blatter wanted russia as a revenue opportunity for FIFA; tsar vladimir wanted the hard currency injection; russkaya mafiya wanted a payday. all parties happy: game over. now watch the bodycount.

despite our having the best technical bid and giving arguably the best presentation, the deal was heading east anyway. that the bbc hammered in the final nail is irrelevant. why didn't putin go? no need: done deal. now he's heading there to share a nod and a wink with sepp.

everyone's known for years that FIFA is corrupt to the core. russia is arguably the biggest corrupt state in the world. they make a perfect couple.

it's going to be an interesting time and an interesting tournament - in the very chinese sense. i wouldn't go if you paid me: too damn dangerous.

A reasonable but angry man said...

'What a pity it is that the BBC should have disgraced our bid with that Panorama programme on Monday.' Four strikes and you're out, Iain. Woolas, YAB, Wikileaks. Now this ridiculously illiberal, establishment stance on investigative journalism. Pity you didn't get to Parliament - the size of your duck island would have been awe-inspiring. But I'm sure this is all positioning you very well for the House of Peers. Shame.

Sean said...

I thought the headline was about the cricket

golden_balls said...

When an empty seat by the Russians plays better than two days with our PM. I think that tells you everything you need to know.

Roger the Shrubber said...

Grant, If the BBC decided to broadcast the show tonight, after we'd lost the bid, then certain bloggers would be wetting their undies as to why they held onto such information. Some would find a way to bash the beeb regardless of we getting the bid or not..

Seems some folks operate do as I say, not as I do..

How many biogs of the calibre of Peter Watts/Mandelson will be out in Jan/Feb? How many came out at conference time?

Anonymous said...

If the programme had been shown tonight, there would have been an outcry about how the process was tainted and that England have been cheated out of the process and Panorama would have been congratulated. Let's face it, as a nation we are not popular anyway and we weren't going to win anyway, as the bid organisers shot themselves in the foot ages ago. Anyone who think we could have won are fooling themselves, we could have gone out in the following round of voting, not the first round as we saw.

Its not hard to see what FIFA want to do, just their methods are suspect. I have no problem with the decisions, now it behoves the Panorama team to investigate further what has happened. Sure, it'll look like sour grapes but who cares?

Bryan Dunleavy said...

The real disgrace is the BBC once again ramping up England's chances which were always realistically between 0 and -1. Russia was always the favourite because Sepp Blatter said so. Nonetheless we went through this routine (just like successive World Cups) of pretending that we were secret favourites. The reporting has been appalling.
Now that all of this is over perhaps we can concentrate on organizing football so that we can actually win it. Unfortunately this will take far more dedication and single-mindedness than is typically displayed by the FA and the media jackals.

Unsworth said...

The questions are when did the BBC decide to air the programme, when was it completed and what were the factors leading the BBC to schedule the programme for that particular slot?

Perhaps the BBC in a spirit of openness and transparency may choose to provide this information. Or perhaps it is content to be viewed as the Fifth Column.

Steve H said...

***What a pity it is that the BBC should have disgraced our bid with that Panorama programme on Monday.***

Yes, let's all rally behind Iain as he bears aloft the banner of The New Politics: "Oppose corruption only where we can't personally benefit from it."

Nigel said...

>>Everyone else has pulled together and thrown the kitchen sink at this bid. It deserves to win<<

I suspect that the miserable two votes we achieved had something to do with our failing to fill the kitchen sink with bundles of unmarked currency.

If it's really necessary to kowtow to a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats in order to host the World Cup, then we are well out of it.

As for 'disgraceful', I think that better describes your attitude to the Panorama program.

Anglodutch said...

And what is wrong with 2026?
Oh of course, even less money to bribe the FIFA decision makers. :-)

Anonymous said...

There are idiots here who support BBC, you know the Liberal Lefties.
I have e-mailed Hunt to look into the BBC licence deal again to reduce this poll tax to £50.

Unknown said...

@norman
I certainly support the BBC over their decision to air the Panorama program. I think the idiots are the ones that are advocating the suppression of evidence of corruption within FIFA.

Jimmy said...

Been out all day.

How did Dave Lightweight get on?

Matt said...

In which "Thiefa" prove that the BBC Panorama Programme was 100% correct in the points it made.

Roger the Shrubber said...

Hmm, so support the BBC on something makes you a leftie liberal. What does thinking Nadine 'someone's going to be suicidal over these terrible incursions into expenses.. ohh, I meant to say that it's all good really, lets publish everything on expenses' Dorries make you? Sane? Centrist?

Considering how much the blogosphere goes into overdrive if they find inconvenient truths are published at moments deemed convenient by others, but inconvenient to them, or vice versa.. the gnashing and grinding of teeth over the BBC Panorama is quite extraordinary. Would we know if a prog exposed corruption in the UK election, if it was broadcast in Kazakstan?

Cynic said...

The finest World Cup that money can buy

Unknown said...

1966. England win World Cup. I was in the Army in germany working in a Military Hospital (non-existent now). No police were required to prevent trouble as we went to celebrate that evening - and commiserate too.
2010. Last night. Big trouble at Birmingham. Plymouth - almost bankrupt (yet another which can't pay HMRC) - ordered to increase massively police presence for their impending league match v Exeter after trouble at recent Cup game between them.
4 Rugby Internationals at Twickenham this autumn each wat5ched by nearly 80,000. Police presence at each game minimal. No trouble of any kind.
Say no more.

Anonymous said...

Well, football's certainly not coming home with Wills and Dave in charge.

Never send two boys to do a man's job!

50 Calibre said...

Wake up and smell the vodka.

Putin's boys had this in the bag years ago. Quite why Cameron, Beckham, who could have done a bit more about his barnet,and the other totally forgettable member of 'Team England 2018' thought they would be able to pull this one off defies rational consideration.

If they didn't know that the Kremlin and FIFA are all as bent as each other because there's just too much money slushing about. It's all part of a lot of people's 'get rich very quickly' plan and it works, it really works...