Russia will win the right to host the 2018 World Cup thanks to a little help from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, a top Moscow daily concluded Thursday from an analysis of the committee’s voting record.
The Izvestia daily studied the allegiances of the 22 voting members on the FIFA executive committee and decided that a joint bid by Holland and Belgium would be the first to be dismissed in the Zurich vote.
That would leave a joint bid by Spain and Portugal up against England and Russia in round two.
Izvestia predicted that the joint bid would receive eight votes after receiving support from the Latin American countries, Qatar and others.
Russia and England would be left with seven votes each, with their fates left up to the FIFA president, who holds the tie-breaking vote.
“Izvestia predicts that both sides will get an equal number of votes, but that Russia will go through to the third round because the deciding vote is with (FIFA President Sepp) Blatter, and he is our ally,” the newspaper wrote.
The daily said Russia would beat Spain and Portugal by a final count of 12 votes to 10 because Russia is seen as a “relatively neutral country” that will get the losing sides’ votes.
Blatter made an official visit to Moscow in October, telling Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that “you have a good chance” of winning the World Cup for the first time.
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