Blatter welcomes England cup bid

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Originally Posted by superfrank

Do you mean Chechen rebels or Russians in general?? I said I won't take racism in this forum and stereotyping is a form of it.

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I mean Russia has not been the most stable country since the fall off communism. There is a whole range of problems in Russia which I shouldnt go into since this is a football forum. Im not sterotyping anyone. They have problems with the republics wanting independence, they have the russian mafia which has mushroomed since post communism. There is numerous groups (including Al Quidea among other) who may want to set of bombs in Russia to highlight their cause..

This is gone off thread... my point was that Russia have less of a chance of hosting the World Cup than the likes of England.

Ok but any country in Western Europe would run a very high risk of being bombed. I think the whole rotation system is fair. I think in 2014 it's South America, then Asia in 2018. There's not much hope of them getting the WC until 2022.

The whole rotation around the world seems unfair... i know everyone should be allowed to host the world cup but Europe should have preference since its the home of football and where football is played at the highest level.

There's a pretty high level in South America. Brazil, Argentina and Mexico all have really good leagues and national teams.

what is football like in Asia and north America ? Is it grown a lot there ?

I don't know. According to most Americans it is and with your man Freddy Adu coming through matches have been selling out over there and they've been getting higher TV ratings.

I haven't a clue about Asia.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

I don't know. According to most Americans it is and with your man Freddy Adu coming through matches have been selling out over there and they've been getting higher TV ratings.

I haven't a clue about Asia.

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as far as i know it is pretty big in japan, south korea and becoming popular in china.

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Originally Posted by superfrank

I don't know. According to most Americans it is and with your man Freddy Adu coming through matches have been selling out over there and they've been getting higher TV ratings.

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Football (soccer) is becoming more popular, but they're not selling out matches (apart from the very odd one). Freddy Adu hasn't been that good this season apparently. However it is being shown a lot more on TV which is a big change. Also, their youth and school structure is amazing. I played in a kick around on Saturday (in DC) and there were acres of other games being played at the same time (from u-10s to about u-18s, mostly boys but also girls).

Its progressing slowly, but MLS is still struggling to compete for attention with the four major sports. The real interest is in their grassroots setup. The local (upstate NY) TV station showed highlights from about 6 or 7 high-school soccer matches. The technique of the players ranges from good to 'a bit rigid' to dreadful, but the sheer numbers who are interested in playing and developing the sport should mean that from now on the US mens national team will be competitive in world football (as evidenced by their 2002 World Cup performance).

I also think I heard that the US Federation want to host the world cup again. Basically because they think it would be able to capture the public's imagination the way it didn't in 1994.