Australia to win 2022 World Cup – O’Neill
Former football federation Australia boss John O’Neill believes that Australia will miss out on the 2018 World Cup but are destined to land the 2022 tournament.
He said: ”I think they will win 2022. My personal view is that 2018 may well have to go back to Europe for financial reasons. The one thing about FIFA is that it is a very unpredictable entity. The 2022 World Cup is a more realistic prospect, but it depends on who may jump out of the woodwork. I understand the USA is hovering and Qatar has put their hands up. But if FIFA is serious about the global game, the one region that has not hosted a World Cup is the Pacific or Oceania. The only country in the Pacific region that can host the World Cup is Australia, and I would be putting my money on 2022.”
One thing that may stand in Australia’s way of claiming the 2018/2022 tournament is the major concerns held by other football codes in the country. Current FFA chief executive Ben Buckley is not surprised by the warnings issued by the rival codes in the lead up to the decision made by FIFA in December 2010.
Buckley said: ”It will have an impact on the other sports, as it fits in the June to July window, which is a hotly contested environment. We all defend our turf. We understand none of the sports are going to sit by and watch their competitor try and overtake them. That’s the nature of business and sport.”
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When I saw the headline I thought he was predicting Australia would win the tournament, not the right to host it! I was ready to laugh in his face. As for Australia hosting it, do they really have infrastructre? If not, will it be worth their while building such massive stadiums? They’ll probably never be full again.
umm yeh sorry mate but we have one of the biggest stadiums in the world and many others with capacity over 45,000
but of course upgrades of stadiums will be needed
and as for the ridiculous remark “theyll never be full again”
the afl is in the top 3 highest attended sports in the world.. above the epl..
so if anything we could use the upgrades and/or new stadiums
How the hell is the AFL a higher attended sport than EPL? Their stadiums are barely full, they play less games, have less teams, and capacity of venues outside of Melbourne are smaller than most of the grounds in the EPL which are almost all full every week.
I agree that Australia has the infrastructure and also would benefit highly from stadium upgrades, but that statement is ridiculous.
Australia is the most likely to win 2022. Lets face it, Australia loves sport and football is growing rapidly at the moment. Australia is iin one of the best time zones in the world with Asia being the leargest televison audience. Australia has the infrastructure and security to host the cup and the stadiums have been finalised, are world class, and not one of them will become white elephants. My only concern with the stadiums is the the MCG is far too big and that the most beautiful ground in the world, Adelaide Oval, is going to be destroyed by ugly stands. Otherwise the AFL/NRL/A-League will get good use out of the new stadiums. Australia hosted the best olympics in history, the 06 commonwealth games, 03 rugby world cup, World Youth Day 08, and all went spectacularly. Ultimately it will come down to USA and Australia for 2022 and I beleive Australia is in a position to take the oportunity and give the world the second greatest world cup (after England of course).
I would really like to travel to Australia, and that got me interested to know if they would host the 2014 or 2018 games. After looking, I see they will not. But if they host the 2022 games that would be great, and an excellent excuse to return there in the future. I am cheering for them this year, whatever their chances.