By JOHN LEICESTER, AP Sports Writer John Leicester, Ap Sports Writer
Picture soccer fans partying where tanks and missiles paraded on Red Square in the Cold War's darkest days. Imagine high-tech air-conditioned stadiums chilled so players and spectators don't keel over in the sweltering desert heat of the Middle East.
For all the allegations of corruption and rigged voting that have been leveled lately against FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, the much-maligned group certainly has a taste for adventure.
In taking the World Cup to the uncharted lands of Russia in 2018 and tiny but oil-wealthy Qatar in 2022, FIFA — like the International Olympic Committee — is leading the charge for the argument that sports can reshape history and influence the destinies and the way people and nations are seen by the rest of the world.
FIFA could have played it safe by going to the ready-built stadiums of the United States or to the sport's motherland of England. Both promised minimal worry and lots of cash. But the desire of FIFA's all-powerful, 74-year-old president, Sepp Blatter, to carry soccer and its considerable influence to promising and largely untapped markets won the day.
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Topic: Russia to Host World Cup 2018 (Read 959 times)