In the midst of all the Gold Cup hoopla this past weekend, you might have missed that far away in St. Petersburg, Russia, the preliminary draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup took place onSaturday. 

Off The Post didn’t watch it on TV, but apparently, a couple of important things happened. Among them: the USA received a kind draw in the semifinal round of CONCACAFWorld Cup qualifying; FIFA’s executive committee decreed that Russia will remain host of the tournament despite the recent U.S. FIFA indictments and Swiss-led investigation into the votingprocess for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups; and Russian President Vladimir Putin and FIFA President Sepp Blatter resumed their amazingly fitting bromance.

Since my colleaguePaul Kennedy has already taken us through the ins and outs of theUSA’s Group C draw here, we’ll start with the ratifying of Russia as 2018 host by FIFA’s ExCo committee.

According to Reuters, the decision by the heads ofsoccer’s world governing body to keep the World Cup in Russia cannot (most likely) now be reversed. “Even if there were any irregularities in the voting, and none have ever been proved or arelikely to be, the only body that can take the World Cup away from Russia is FIFA’s Executive Committee,” a senior FIFA insider told the global news agency on Monday. “I think we canfinally put that idea to bed,” he added.

Indeed, this particular FIFA insider speaks the truth: no voting irregularities were found in the bidding for the 2018 World Cup and none are expectedto be found, either. After all, this is Russia, a magical and mysterious land where anything and everything can suddenly disappear. Whether it’s important documents, computers, politicians,journalists — even whole company valuations have been known to vanish into thin air without notice, process or witnesses. 

Funny, then, that the computers used by Russia’s WorldCup bidding committee are gone, too. Even FIFA’s own head judge, Hans Joachim-Eckert — the man who former FIFA prosecutor Michael Garcia famously accused of screwing up(or with) his report into the 2018 and 2022 bidding processes — was miffed by the total and utter lack of evidence supplied by Team Russia when Garcia asked the bidding committee to submit all of itsdocumentation.

But where did the computers go? According to Alexey Sorokin, head of Russia 2018 organizing committee: “We rented the equipment, we had to give it back, then itwent back — we don’t even know where it went – to some sports schools, so quite naturally other people used it.” He goes on to say that because a whopping four years have now goneby, some documents (read: virtually all) were, naturally, lost — you know, stuff the government no longer needed, or whatever.

In the age of Big Data — that is, at a time when more data iscollected, kept and interpreted every X number of days than had ever previously been collected, kept, and recorded since the beginning of human history — doesn’t that answer sound just a tad… let’s see: dismissive/reckless/unacceptable?

Nope, not to FIFA.

Meanwhile, since birds of a feather flock together, it should come as a surprise to absolutely no onethat Blatter and Putin have forged this beautiful friendship. At Saturday’s preliminary draw — which, by the way was held at Putin’s personal home in St. Petersburg — Blatter openedwith, “Thank you, President Putin, you make us happy and comfortable.” What he didn’t say is that, at the moment, the FIFA President is afraid of traveling to just about anywhere elseright now.

Then, a few days after the draw, Putingave an interview to Swiss TV in which he says that his friend deserves a Nobel Prize for his contributions to soccer.

What a poignant thing for him to say: as it turns out, Blatter haslong coveted a Nobel Peace Prize for FIFA on behalf of world soccer. Too bad that that’s unlikely to happen for him now that the Nobel Peace Center has terminated its partnership with FIFA dueto the recent U.S. and Swiss-led indictments. 

But then again, that’s what the very best friends are for: to help you hold onto your dreams at any cost—especially when thosedreams have no basis in reality.

Right?

Actually, if OTP recalls correctly, his therapist once had a word for those kinds of people: enablers. 

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7 Comments

  1. Putin is speaking to his own country.No one else would likely hear his comments.Unless you have soccer America news letter.It’s a huge thing for Russia to host it and world see them in their prime. Let them pay for it like Sochi Winter Olympics. Look at Brazil and the dissaster it brought them. Fell sorry for Russian people that footing the bill for the Putin ego.I think it’s time to find one place that have the infra structure to do it all the time. Not bank rupture countries every 4th year.Or at minimum 2-3 or places to do it.

  2. I agree, there should be a permanent venue. It would solve many problems not the least of which would be cutting out the continuing graft out of the bidding process to get the cup awarded to a country as well as the burden of complying with some ridiculous FIFA requirements. Nothing wrong with using continental sites on a revolving basis. Certainly would keep Blatter’s greedy sticky fingers out of the pie. As far as Putin and Blatter…they deserve each other.

  4. I don’t think it will happen. There is too much money involved. Even if they split the profits evenly to all nations is the local economy that benefits.

  7. All one needs to know about how corrupt Blatter is – is to hear a inscrutable despot like Putin praising him. Two peas in a pod. Though I would prefer a cell. For both. Of course Putin will praise and help hide the illicit acts of FIFA. After all, if FIFA officials start si

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