Disagree, some of the most autocratic rulers that have caused the most damage have either ignored religion or tried to stamp it out. Hitler, Stalin and Mao all tried to remove religion from the equation and it was seen as affective as it removes the concept of a higher power that people are beholden to.
The most effective rulers though, will use religion as a tool to control the masses, while not actually following any of the teachings themselves. In essence, they will pervert religious teachings in an effort to support their positions. The Saudi rulers are very much not follow the Koran, considering the trappings of riches that they currently have. Putin is using his clerics to justify his existence, all the while breaking every single commandment in the book and Trump used religion to convince the masses to do what he wanted.
I’d prefer if they went down the Denmark route. This statement will be forgotten within the week, the jerseys will be shown on live tv and talked about every time Denmark plays
We spent probably millions of dollars on a terrible travel advert on Australia, masquerading as a World Cup bid video about a terribly animated Kangaroo living up to the colonial history of the nation by stealing the fucking World Cup Trophy from FIFA HQ, and be chased down by a death defying shady looking assassin wannabe who turns out to be Paul Hogan channeling his inner Liam Neeson. The only thing missing was Lara Bingle getting her tits out and asking the football world “where the bloody hell are ya?!” To have kept it up to date, it would have been Margot Robbie, which I think we can all agree is a better option.
Either way, the whole process and the amount of money spent on the process was embarrassing and I hope to god we never bid again.
Never understood this obsession with the video. It didn’t sway a single vote one way or the other, and just capped off a significant process where all votes had aleady been decided.
For better or worse, we were trying to win the vote the “right” way. Australia tried to show that it was eager and ready to take it on. Qatar won the vote because it showed that it was eager and ready to pay people to win the vote…
Because it is emblematic of the amateurish, naive, almost infantile way that Frank Lowy and his homonculi went about the whole thing. It encapsulates the ignorance and stupidity of the FFA while highlighting the absolute corruptness of FIFA.
I was wondering the other day about what we could offer as a new bid and all I could really think was a combined bid. Maybe with NZ… but possibly there would be more success with a batch of ASEAN federation nations. That would keep the bid within the AFC and serve a region of 700 million odd people who’ve not had a WC before. Presumably China will get the next Asian WC but after that it could be a very strong bid.
I was trying to further support your views haha
