World Cup Results Are In.

The 2018 Tournament will be held in Russia.

The 2022 Tournament will be held in Qatar.

Although the fact England were knocked out in the first round of voting sticks in my throat a bit this was probably the best result for the sport. In choosing which nation gets to host the World Cup finals FIFA tries to build a passion for football across the globe. With the 2010 tournament being held in Africa and the 2014 tournament being held in South America there was a strong feeling that in 2018 and 2022 it would be the turn of Europe and Asia. Logically that meant that Russia would be the obvious choice for 2018 and the 2022 finals would go to either Qatar or Australia.

Although Russia is very much part of Europe it is almost a continent in itself stretching all the way to the Pacific ocean and the south of the country bordering central Asia. That means a World Cup being played in Russia would take place in a time zone that is accessible to most of the Worlds population on TV. Some of the games would also physically accessible to visitors from the -khstans, India and China which is an area of the World where there is the most potential for growth in football as a sport. Plus there is a huge passion for football in Russia but a serious lack of investment with many top-flight games being played in crumbling Soviet-era stadiums. By hosting the World Cup Russia is able to unlock investment that will build 14 new stadiums and encourage further, private investment in the country's domestic game. Also there are elements of Russian society, such as their treatment of journalists, that could do well from being brought under the spotlight of global scrutiny. Therefore hosting the World Cup in Russia allows FIFA to build a very large and very real legacy for football.

Likewise in Qatar there is huge public interest in foreign football, especially England's Premier League, but no real domestic game to speak of. So hosting the 2022 tournament there will see 22 new stadium built there and the opportunity to create real, grassroots support for the sport. Also because parts of Russia and Qatar are more or less in the same time zone World Cup matches played there would be accessible to TV viewers in Europe, Africa and the all important Asian region.

By contrast England, Spain & Portugal, Belgium & the Netherlands are all nations that pretty much have football in their DNA with rich domestic leagues that are already part of the national psyche. As the England bid team kept on reminding everyone those nations could host the tournament tomorrow meaning that while it would be fun a World Cup held there would have very little impact on football in those countries. Also games played in Europe suffer because they'd be on far too early in the morning for viewers in the America's to watch on TV and on far to late for viewers in Asia to watch.

Therefore in terms of the sport I think FIFA have made the right choice. In fact if their being honest I think the England bid team knew that they never really stood a chance. I would even go so far to say that all the scandal in the British press and on the BBC about bribery and corruption in the bidding process was just an attempt to get their excuses in early. So when England inevitably didn't win it could all get blamed on corrupt FIFA officials, Rupert Murdoch and the BBC rather then just accepting England just didn't have the best bid.