"Risky" South Africa.

[Dave A]

Russia has won the bid to hold the 2018 World Cup. Well done Russia.

But the England bid team is particularly ticked off about it.

Sour grapes or justified frustration aside, I did not enjoy listening to one of them describing South Africa as a "risky" World Cup venue. Particularly as we have the benefit of hindsight which shows it was a highly successful event and was clearly well within our capabilities.

And to think they speculate that "negative media" might have hurt their bid

[AndyD]

Bitchy little girls throwing toys. FIFA has had a pattern of awarding the world cup to countries which haven't yet hosted it so it wasn't a great surprise.

[Dave A]

After sleeping on it, maybe it's a positive.

Putting it all in perspective, we've probably helped pave the way for "risky" destinations to be considered seriously as viable options.

[wynn]

Well if our WC was risky because of the criminals outside the stadii, imagine Britain with the yobbo's inside the stadii.

Whats the bet Oz will be saying that they are plan B again.

[desA]

Russia will be incredibly safe, despite what people may think. They have skilled security personnel - many ex KGB.

SA was & still is an incredibly risky place to host world class events, due to the huge crime component. The world cup safety can be attributed, in my view, to President Blatter & his organisation team managing the Zumatoobs & their cronies. Look what SA has degraded to immediately after their departure.

I would wonder if such events could be managed in SA 10 years hence? Anyone want to guarantee visitor safety?

[Dave A]

When they talk of "risk", it's really about infrastructure - building safe stadiums, public transport capacity, accomodation.

You can get mugged almost anywhere. And although crime against WC visitors would not be good news, it would be nothing compared to the stink if a stadium wasn't ready for its game, or collapsed in the middle of one

[AndyD]

As long as the FIFA mafia take control of the Russian mafia for the duration I'm sure the Russian WC will go without a hitch.