Qatari vision of football in 2015 [LOL @ The Times]

[souliv]

Very scary if true and could destroy football

175 million per 2 year cycle

http://lfcts.tumblr.com/post/45235722963/oliver-kay-on-the-times-shifting-sands-that-could#_=_

[Frenchie]

They are the Ferengi of the world.

[Fosterbloke]

Won't take off. Football is about local support, not some temporary oil money vision.

[GTi]

Sadly money talks, football stinks.

[EwarWoo]

Awful what it could do to widen the gap, but a club world cup will be a cracking tournament to watch.

[Roboklopp]

Horrendous idea. Just another step in separating the clubs from the fans.

[Pedenj]

FIFA basically showed them that Football is there to be bought by the highest bidder with the World Cup Bid.

This is a different level but can you really rule out some clubs wanting to go for it.

They want a number of 'Permanent' members - wonder if we'd be invited to the party........

[Tee]

Forget everything else, reading that link then coming back to this forum, the font size looks so bloody small!

[Roboklopp]

Tis hoax this apparently.

[Robbie-fowler999]

Out of all the gulf countries i hate Qatar the most.. Their solution to everything is throwing money at a problem. tbf it works most of the time but i just cant stand the cunts

[Marina]

Out of all the gulf countries i hate Qatar the most.. Their solution to everything is throwing money at a problem. tbf it works most of the time but i just cant stand the cunts

Haha that's a bit of a ridiculous thing to say. Besides another gulf country, Saudi Arabia, has a great deal more influence on the world, and it's arguable that said influence is not the most positive. Qatar is wealthy, but they probably don't deserve to be the most hated of all the Gulf countries.

[Fosterbloke]

I love Gulf -

[Sarb]

Oliver Kay is getting some grief over this on twitter. Journos coming out in support. It could be a fail of a similar magnitude to the 'China Buys Liverpool' by the Times too

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

If its just a tournament every 2 years why is there a fuss over it?

The African nations happens during the season ffs. Yeah I know its not good for our local fan base but if it can be managed properly I think the idea isn't so bad.

However 24 is a strange number, it would mean groups of 6 or 3 and neither are ideal. 32 teams makes better sense although it'd be a lot more expensive.

[Neil Young]

FYI there will be twenty-four teams at Euro 2016, with the groups currently envisaged as being in six groups of four and designed to knock out only eight teams.