Behold! The evolution of hair.
Despite allegations of widespread corruption and naive requests for FIFA to care about them, the shadowy voting process to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup will go ahead as scheduled on Thursday.
According to Danny Jordaan, the man who ran South Africa's World Cup bids for 2006 and 2010 and inspector of the nine current bids, it's the insomnia-riddled last hours and not the months and months of stadium visits and political posturing that will decide who wins out.
“Forget about any sleep,” Jordaan told Reuters in a telephone interview from Zurich, where the nine bid teams are gathered ahead of the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Thursday.
“The bid teams are going to need to keep going right through in the final night to make sure they get their case across. We went from one meeting to the next trying to persuade the FIFA members of the merits of our case and to address their fears and concerns.”
This is probably what Qatar will be doing as it looks to bring the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time in 2022. FIFA's summary on Qatar's bid was perhaps the most alarming of them all and will force the country's representatives to remind voters that summertime in Qatar is not hot enough to literally make people melt like cheese.
But it's not all about reassurances. There's also the celebrities! And bribes! I mean, existing relationships!
The U.S. has brought an all-star team of Bill Clinton, Landon Donovan and the only man to portray FIFA favorite Nelson Mandela AND God, Morgan Freeman, to make its final 2022 presentation in Zurich. England, meanwhile, brought in freshly engaged Prince William along with his tag team of Davids -- Prime Minister David Cameron and footballing hair-grower David Beckham -- for its 2018 push.
A little star quality also goes a long way, he said, remembering the role played by former South African president Nelson Mandela in helping the country to win the right to host the 2010 World Cup.
“We had the Mandela factor,” Jordaan said. “There is no doubt he had an huge impact.”
“In the end, a lot of it comes down to the human factor, to the relationships that already exist. There is a strong emotive pull in places.”
Replace the word "human" with "greed," "relationships" with "bribes," and "emotive" with "monetary," and you'll have what Jordaan really means.
As for the process itself, Jordaan thinks both the 2018 and 2022 races will be tight ones that come down to the second round of voting.
The voters in Zurich will pick from four bids for the 2018 tournament—England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Netherlands/Belgium—and five for 2022—United States, Japan, South Korea, Qatar and Australia.
Jordaan said picking up votes after the first round, once rivals had been eliminated, would be crucial.
“It’s clear this will be a difficult one to call and it is also clear there are not going to be any winners after the first round of voting,” he said.
“Successful bids are going to need to pick up other country’s votes as they fall out of the race and in order to do that you have to have your strategy in place.
“The last hours are vital. There is no sleeping. The rumour mill is always very active and there can always be some persuading to do, even at the last moment.”
Photo: Getty Images
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