icεmαή;2804141 said:
That'd be a stupid reason to lose out. Isn't the whole point of spreading the Cup across countries to promote the game further?
Yes you're right but the other football codes wanted to protect their brands as well. For example most of the stadiums in Australia are oval stadiums used for AFL/Cricket and there is a couple of big ones in Sydney that are squared and used for NRL/ Union.
So then the world cup will come in and FIFA have demanded that all major sporting leagues be stopped in the duration of the world cup. The other codes freaked out and an already "weak" bid kept getting weaker even though it had government backing, piles of money an decent support from Beckenbaur iirc.
It would've been a real spectacle there, full houses all around and a great party for a month. But I don't think a strong enough legacy would've been kept for football and am not really sure the views from the stadiums would be ideal etc.
About the winter world cup. Hell No! The whole point behind is that its the great event in the summer. Heat or no heat, you can push it back a few weeks or something where the weather will be a bit better. But it has to be in the summer and trust the players could adapt.