ONE of football’s most respected journalists, Henry Winter, believes FIFA should strip Qatar of the 2022 World Cup and hand it to Australia.

He says Australia should have won the bid initially and if it had, FIFA would not be in the mess it is now, drowning in petrol dollars.

Writing in Britain’s The Telegraph, Winter said it was “laughable” that Australia’s bid finished last, describing it as the most legitimate proposal of the competing countries.

“Imagine a World Cup in an honest, welcoming, sports-mad country, whose emerging football league would be transformed by local stadia hosting global superstars,” Winter wrote.

“Imagine a World Cup where organisers are motivated primarily by a desire to put on a great party for the world.”

media_camera An artist’s impression of what a new 60,000-seat Perth stadium would look like, from Football Federation Australia’s bid book for the FIFA World Cup.

‘AUSTRALIA CRAVES SOCCER GAMES’

Pointing to the enormous crowds that turned out to watch English Premier League giants Manchester United and Liverpool play in Sydney and Melbourne last year, Winter said Australia had the passion to make the World Cup a raging success.

“Imagine if 2022 were in Australia. There would be broadcasting issues, frustrations in Europe over kick-off times, but that does not lessen the excitement English cricket fans feel for the Ashes when staged at the MCG, etc. Anyway, sporting competitions should not be based solely on the viewing habits of Euro-man. Inevitable changes to working patterns over the next decade, blurring night and day shifts, make time-zones even less of an issue.”

QATAR OFFICIALS REJECT CORRUPTION CLAIMS

media_camera FIFA president Sepp Blatter announces Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup.

‘QATAR IS SUCH AN ARTIFICIAL ENVIRONMENT’

Qatar won the hosting rights in a landslide in 2010, also beating bids from the US, South Korea and Japan.

Its officials now find themselves embroiled in a corruption scandal, which you can read more about here.

“It summed up FIFA’s tainted voting system that the most legitimate bid (Australia’s) went out in the first round,” Winter said.

“The US, for all its magnificent arenas and powerful media, have staged the competition before as have South Korea and Japan.

“The competition should be pioneering, pushing back the boundaries. Qatar could not be taken seriously from a footballing perspective; there could be no serious footballing legacy from holding the event in such an artificial environment. No integrity.”

media_camera Australian fans get behind their team.

‘FIFA needs to act’

Winter raised the possibility of FIFA stripping Qatar of the tournament in the wake of recent corruption claims, but admitted it was unlikely to happen.

“Renewed allegations linking Qatar with financial inducements are of little surprise. The miscreants named in the story, Mohamed Bin Hammam and the particularly despicable Jack Warner, are now beyond football’s jurisdiction, having no role in the game, but FIFA could remove the tournament from Qatar,” he said.

“It’s a pipe-dream of course because the pipe is full of gas and oil.

“Qatar 2022 will make FIFA fortunes. Qatar will host the World Cup and visiting fans will just have to pinch their noses at the stench.”

Originally published as ‘World Cup should move to Australia’