Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Grant Wahl: U.S.' bid appears favored for 2022

How convoluted are the politics surrounding this Thursday's FIFA vote to award the hosts for World Cups 2018 and '22? Well, the first person I saw upon leaving airport customs here was Bora Milutinovic, the peripatetic Serbian-born, Mexican-based coach who managed the U.S. at World Cup '94.


"The Body" is working for Australia...


"My friend! My friend!" Bora squawked, and it's true. Bora is everybody's friend. He remains tight with the U.S. Soccer Federation, which is bidding to host World Cup '22 (to be awarded with World Cup '18 on Thursday). But Bora is publicly supporting the competing bid of Qatar -- for a nice fee -- joining other celebrity endorsers for the wealthy Arab emirate that include Zinédine Zidane, Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola.

For a few days, then, Bora is not America's friend.

No comments: