You know, it's kinda weird but in a roundabout kind of way I can see why Russia got it. Now bribery allegations aside the logical conclusion would seem to be this. England would have said something like this to the FIFA delegates.
"We have great stadiums here, Old Trafford, The Emirates, Wembley, St James' Park, Villa Park. We have great transport links, we have great hotels for the players to stay in, we have very good training facilities and we have plenty of people here who would benefit from other people buying merchandise"
Then along come Russia with theirs
"Listen we don't have the stadiums England have and the other things aren't as up to scratch as England BUT we are cash rich and between now and 2018 we can build those things. We just need a reason to do it, which giving us the WC would be"
Now looking at that could it really be argued that Russia don't deserve it given they are prepared to make those preperations, I mean, just imagine how nice those new stadiums could be given the time they have and the money they have. Now they have eight years to build these stadiums and get the transport links sorted and all the rest of it. So again if I were a FIFA delegate I would find it difficult not to award Russia the World Cup.
Qatar is the real puzzler though. I know I know, bribery, but think about it, it's going to be 105 degrees over there. It should really have gone to the USA because it would benefit them hugely. I mean, Man United go over there most summers for pre season and the stadiums are very good. I know they aren't specifically catered for football (soccer) games but still.
