The bid is just going to be oil tankers filled with bribe money https://t.co/ROeQRtTn8E
— Palantir Enjoyer (@lib_crusher) July 16, 2021
As Jack Douglas once said, When you are rich with money, it’s okay to smell like last year’s ape. Per the NYTimes:
Nothing is off the table. Not a bid to buy one of England’s biggest soccer clubs. Not rich offers for multimillion-dollar broadcast packages. Not even an improbable bid to secure the hosting rights to the 2030 World Cup.
As Saudi Arabia sets course to spend its way to the top table of global soccer, the heart of those efforts is a bid to land the sport’s biggest prize. To accomplish its goal, Saudi Arabia has hired Boston Consulting Group to analyze how it could land the quadrennial tournament — one of the most watched events in sports — only eight years after Qatar will become the first country in the Middle East to stage the event.
Several other Western consultants have been asked to help with the project, according to one of the advisers exploring the feasibility of a Saudi bid, and acknowledge that it will require “out of the box thinking” — including, potentially, an agreement to share the hosting rights with a European partner. And despite Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in soccer, the bid, particularly in its current form, is considered a long shot…
But perhaps the most pressing difficulty to bring a World Cup to Saudi Arabia is a technical one. Since Qatar will stage the first Mideast World Cup next winter, any Saudi Arabian bid would require soccer’s global governing body, FIFA, which runs the tournament, to change its policy of continental rotation in order to bring the event back to the region…
For a Saudi bid to be successful, organizers could once again have to be persuaded to shift the dates of the tournament from their traditional June-July window to November-December to account for hot weather in the Gulf. The global soccer schedule had to be upended to ensure Qatar could stage the tournament safely, and European leagues whose schedules would be upended might be reluctant to repeat the interruption.
Saudi Arabian hopes, though, are boosted by its close links to FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, who recently drew criticism from human rights groups after playing a starring role in a promotional video for the Saudi ministry of sport.
In January, Infantino held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the architect of Vision 2030. And FIFA’s membership agreed last month to a motion offered by Saudi Arabia’s soccer federation to study the possibility of holding the World Cup every two years instead of its current quadrennial format…
NotMax
Jewish players need not apply.
John Revolta
“How much for your daughter? Forty thousand? Fifty thousand?”
Seriously, SA ought to hold on to its money until we see how things go in Qatar next year. I won’t be surprised to see a clusterfuck that’ll taint the event permanently.
Baud
Fixed
JDM
I think there’s a phrase missing from the quoted part. After the phrase “For a Saudi bid to be successful, organizers could once again have to be persuaded to…” it should read “line their pockets. Again.”
Baud
@JDM:
In fairness to FIFA, the alternative to being bribed may be a bone saw. I’d take the money too.
Martin
Eh, fuck it. I propose a change to the rules:
Every 15 minutes of every WC match, a 60 second secret online auction is held between the two teams for a goal. If one team bids more than double the other, they get awarded a goal – in addition to goals scored on pitch. Anyone can add to the bid.
Whoever loses the final match gets to host the next world cup, but gets all the proceeds from the winning bids to help fund it. Teams get to decide if winning or hosting is more valuable – you can’t do both.
Baud
I don’t know how strict Qatar is, but how is SA going to deal with female fans from all over the world who don’t follow SA gender rules?
Ruckus
@Martin:
You do have a way about you….
Having worked reasonably high up in professional sports, I’d bet your idea would get some attention from the PTB.
wvng
At least three of the teams in the Tour de France were sponsored by oil rich arab countries.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Okay, this made me laugh
Though I think I might get either the Bender or Leonnig book for a walking soundtrack
The Moar You Know
A dollar spent on bribes is a dollar that won’t be spent on training up hijackers to crash planes into American skyscrapers. Guess I’m in favor.
JMG
FIFA can’t let the IOC get too far ahead in the corruption derby.
Chetan Murthy
@The Moar You Know: OECD governments need to slap tariffs on KSA oil. Rake away their money, they can’t spread their insane madrassas everywhere and destroy the world.
P.S. I’m aware that oil is a fungible commodity. Which is why it needs to be -all- the OECD countries, not just some. Get enough of the oil importers, and you obviate the issue of fungibility.
burnspbesq
HT: USA 1-0 Canada. USA scored inside 30 seconds, and dominated for the first 25 minutes, but Canada have played their way back into it. Match is very much up for grabs.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Instituting a rule that everyone on the field must be wearing an outfit traditionally associated with the host country would shake things up. Footwear granted a waiver.
;)
Tony Jay
Well, if it’s FIFA’s intention to incite a destructive conflict between the principle of UNABASHED AND UNLIMITED GREED and, y’know, everything else that makes a World Cup so exciting to watch, they should totally try to find a way to let Saudi Arabia continue laundering its reputation through Sport.
What could possibly go wrong?
Hildebrand
Oh, good lord. Playing football in desert, tyrant, bigoted, nations is a bad call. I don’t care how much money FIFA gets (though, of course, that’s all they care about). Honestly.
I’d love for even a single country (who is actually good at football) to say, ‘yep, not doing this.’ Won’t hold my breath.
NotMax
@Hildebrand
Bring on the camel polo!
//
Frank Wilhoit
Saudi Arabia would still be terra incognita, populated by nomads, if Winston Churchill had not decided in 1911 that the Royal Navy needed to be converted from coal to oil. A century on, we are still paying the price and the price is still going up, day by day.
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: Buzkashi
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The half-orangutan threw a banana at someone? Why didn’t the orange shitstain just eat it?
Uncle Cosmo
@JMG: Au contraire, mon frère, the IOC ought to get down on their knobby knees six times a day and thank doG for FIFA having nosed them out as the most corrupt sports organization in the multiverse….
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Yup.
Parfigliano
@mrmoshpotato: Eating a banana would be a healthy food choice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: MBS will get his buddy Jared to fix it, Jared can fix anything!
L85NJGT
Boston Consulting Group
???????
burnspbesq
Have to say, young Mr. Busio looks like the real deal. If the rumored move to Serie A materializes, he won’t be out of place.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: hell, are they going to allow non-Wahhabist Muslims?
trollhattan
They should hold it during the Hajj, just to spice things up.
They could add a bid for the 2027 Women’s World Cup. All competitors must wear burkas. And no lady-swearing.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
“Wow, how did you manage to get this goat meat so tender?”
:)
@BillinGlendaleCA
“Look, Sal baby, you’ve already got the orb. Dressing it up as a soccer ball takes next to nothing.”
Steeplejack
@Baud:
And liquor.
raven
@burnspbesq: The announcer also said “Canada player their way back into it”. How does that happen when they are still behind 1-0?
Morzer
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I am amazed that Mister Bone Saw has emerged so quickly from his rathole. That said, nothing that FIFA’s corrupt rabble does can surprise me, so we’d better get ready for more utterly stupid ideas like hosting tournaments in a fiery furnace run by murderous bigots.
NotMax
@raven
Like Avis, #2 tries harder?
:)
NotMax
@Morzer
When the RWNJs complete a takeover of mass media.
:)
trollhattan
In other sports news.
Lot of moving parts here.
burnspbesq
@raven:
Canada has been the better team in the second half. The US is hanging on.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Squabble escalates.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: If you’re trying harder for #2, you might want to add some fiber to your diet.
Chetan Murthy
@trollhattan: Rooting for organ donation.
Ruckus
@Frank Wilhoit:
Coal fired boilers are even dirtier than bunker oil. And that shit is nasty. Plus someone had to shovel every lump of coal into the boilers. Ship I was on used bunker oil, which is oil out of the ground with the rocks and heavy tars removed. That ship was converted not too long after I went on board over to kerosene/JP5 which was dramatically cleaner and didn’t have to be heated just to be pumped. Prior to conversion the stacks had to be cleaned every 8 hrs of boiler operation, which meant they had live steam introduced into the boiler exhaust to blow out the crap. Thick black smoke that could be seen for miles and which you didn’t want to be anywhere near. With the conversion the stacks never had to be cleaned out, that’s how bad bunker oil was. So the ship didn’t leave a large trail of thick black smoke visible for many miles every 8 hrs after that. Also it took about 1/2 the time to refuel, which is nice considering how close the ships got, refueling out in the middle of the ocean.
Emma
Since people were talking about the TV series North and South in the garden/chilies open thread, here’s part 1 of his interview on the DVD’s special features (I miss those so much…): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLAKAkT_9Jg&ab_channel=HeathDances
I would take him over Colin Firth any day. He gushes about the novel and the romantic scenes hahaha :)
raven
@burnspbesq: They don’t ask how, they ask how many!
raven
@Ruckus: “The black gang”!
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Deep-fried sawdust.
“It’s organic!”
//
raven
Well, Canada gets to say they played better.
waspuppet
@JDM: I mean, the number of euphemisms for “bribe” just in that excerpt …
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As if he’d ever be near anything as healthy as a banana.
burnspbesq
USA holds on for the 1-0 win.
In context, it’s a good result. Canada had all but one of its front-line players, while only two of the US players would start if Berhalter had all his Europe-based players at his disposal.
US wins the group, and gets a theoretically easier quarterfinal, although there isn’t much to choose between Jamaica and Costa Rica.
dmsilev
Probably a deal-breaker from FIFA’s perspective:
‘We extorted those billions of dollars fair and square, how dare you steal them?’
Morzer
@dmsilev: I would imagine Trump avoids bananas with great care. Those awkward moments when everyone pretends that size doesn’t matter, you know.
NotMax
@dmsilev
“I like to watch Ivanka peel them. Real slow.”
NotMax
#52 was intended to be @Morzer.
Mary G
dmsilev
@NotMax: Trump likes to watch Morzer peel a banana? That’s really perverse.
mali muso
@Emma: Thanks for this! I love love love North and South mainly due to Richard Armitage’s presence. Time for a rewatch!
Fair Economist
@Mary G: That looks really nice. Love the retro vibe.
Patricia Kayden
Emma
@mali muso: me too! I rewatched N&S recently, knowing that Armitage was a Gaskell fanboy, and every John and Margaret scene had me squee-ing :)
zhena gogolia
@Emma: We just finished watching last night. I am totally in love with him. Vicar of Dibley tonight, followed by his appearance on Lynley, and I’ll go from there. I guess he was in Uncle Vanya on PBS too.
ETA: I also ordered the book. I’ve only read Cranford and The Life of Charlotte Bronte.
zhena gogolia
@Emma: His scenes with Sinead Cusack are really hot too. I know, she’s supposed to be his mother, but . . .
MagdaInBlack
@Mary G: That IS the color of my bathroom. I thought so the first time you posted about it, but now I’m sure. I love it ❤️
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mary G: Ooh. That looks so pretty.
debbie
@Emma:
I’m looking for it at my library. How many seasons have there been?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Meanwhile, in 56 hours the Olympics begin with The Bad News Bears vs The World (photo)
Martin
@Ruckus: I can’t imagine my idea is worse than what we already have.
Baud
@Martin:
What if both teams decide they want to host and start kicking the ball into their own goals?
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: that would be pretty funny to watch.
West of the Rockies
@trollhattan:
Was it bird shot from a .410?
mvr
If they are willing to hand over MBS to be tried for the murder Kashoggi it might be worth doing. Maybe we can try Kushner et. al. as accessories after the fact.
tokyokie
@Baud:
Utah relaxed its Byzantine liquor laws to accommodate the Winter Olympics a few years back. Somehow I’m guessing KSA won’t do likewise for the World Cup.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
It was a 2004 miniseries — four episodes. At least as it appears on Prime.
Emma
@zhena gogolia: hmm, well, if incest is your kink… XD but yes, Sinead Cusack was so good. Heck, the whole cast was so good.
@debbie: it’s just a 4-episode series.
Frank Wilhoit
@Ruckus: Without disputing anything you say, the tradeoff has been the original War Without End, and the one that has the potential to escalate, too quickly for any defined decision-making process to respond, to an extinction-level event. And I do not think Churchill (and Fisher) were thinking in terms of the visibility of stack plumes; they appear to have been thinking almost exclusively of speed.
Patricia Kayden
dmsilev
@Frank Wilhoit: Nothing that Churchill or Fisher did with regards to design choices for the various Dreadnought classes would have had any effect on Standard Oil or the Ford Motor Company. Mass use of oil as a fuel was pretty much inevitable by the time of WWI.
JML
Speaking of soccer, I saw my first MLS game in person (MN United v Seattle Sounders) and it was a delight. Excellent game with a lot of forward-thinking action and some chippiness that only happens when teams get a little fed up with each other (including our coach apparently telling a Seattle player to stop diving and whining about it and get off his ass and play, nearly leading to a sideline brouhaha. (I’m paraphrasing on the words, but the intent was clear?))
Dang it was fun. 4 rows off the field gets you a nifty view.
debbie
@zhena gogolia: @Emma:
Thanks!
Feather
If anyone wants to do North and South on audio, I highly recommend the CraftLit podcast. It’s produced by a former high school English teacher and intended to be listened to while doing your crafting. She does an introduction with historical context, information about the author, and any unusual vocabulary words. She was an actress before she was a teacher, so she’s excellent when she does the reading. She hires actors she knows when she doesn’t read, so the quality is always top notch. She begins with updates on her life and knitting news, but does give the time the book talk begins up front if you want to skip that. The podcast has been on a long time, so navigating your way can be tough. North and South is episodes 331-365.
billcinsd
@JML: Did you sing Wonder Wall?
billcinsd
@burnspbesq: Canada was missing probably their top 2 players in Davies and David. I thought the US really missed Zimmerman after he went out injured
Just One More Canuck
@trollhattan: that first sentence in the quote may be one of the greatest ever written
Major Major Major Major
Like winters there will be cold enough for the cup by 2030…
NotMax
@debbie
A few period dramas which memory recalls were not overly contrived or soppy.
Lark Rise To Candleford no longer on Prime nor on Netflix, is available on both Hulu and Britbox.
The Duchess of Duke Street, while by now wheezing a bit and showing its age, still on Prime (1 out of 2 seasons, anyway).
The positively addictive Spanish series Grand Hotel no longer on Netflix, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will return there eventually; it’s done this disappearing act before. (There was also a remake done for Egyptian TV, which unfortunately falls significantly short of the original.)
Flickers (Bob Hoskins & Frances de la Tour) was sufficiently fun to stick with; on IMDb TV at the moment.
Found the Korean period movie The Royal Tailor much more enjoyable than had anticipated going in while it was on Prime. Currently on both IMDb TV and the Roku channel.
M31
OK, Florida it is then
Chetan Murthy
@M31: Ahem. *Texas*.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Tough to televise without electricity.
;)
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: Point.
M31
@Chetan Murthy: Texas is going for the Winter Murderous Bigot Olympics
Chetan Murthy
@M31: No argument here. I just wish there were something we could do, for the decent people under that murderous reign. For want of anything else, I will donate to the Texas Organizing Project.
Morzer
@dmsilev: FAKE NEWS!!!!
Morzer
This is too good, in a bizarre way, not to share:
https://theintellectualist.com/2021/07/06/trump-supporter-jfk-jr-is-still-alive-and-will-take-over-the-wh-with-trump-in-2021/
debbie
@NotMax:
Thanks!
Chetan Murthy
*so* completely OT: So, uh, I watched The Brokenwood Mysteries and for sure, they’re a little twee (“Mrs Marlowe”, really?) and a little cliched, but still, they were very sweet. Anybody have other favorites in that genre? Just curious ….
Patricia Kayden
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Never having seen Brokenwood cannot be sure how these compare stylistically, nevertheless a few above average titles kicking around here and there.
Bordertown
Broadchurch
Deadwind
Mamon
Roba
Fallet
Trapped
Happy Valley
Origins
Borderliner
Captain Marleau
Wallander (Swedish original version)
Spiral
All the Sins (Finnish original version)
.
JML
@billcinsd: you betcha!