The FIFA organization has come under scrutiny ahead of Thursday's World Cup vote.

In the last few days, I have been asked several times who I think FIFA is going to pick to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

My answer has always been the same. I have no clue. For 2018 it is tough to pick between the growing economic powerhouse of Russia, who have never hosted before, the "home of football" England who have not welcomed or won the event since 1966, the Iberian flair of Portugal and Spain or the pragmatic approach of Holland and Belgium.

For 2022 the selection is also complex. The U.S. you would think has a strong case after it's inaugural hosting in 1994, but winning the vote is all about making friends and the fallout of the Wikileaks releases may have soured a few key relations at the wrong time.

Both Korea and Japan have been relatively recent hosts (as joint organizers in 2002) while Qatar's climate would surely make playing games in June a tough proposition despite the desire take the game to an important new region. Australia are famed for their love of sport, but are they passionate enough about football to give the event the buzz of the Sydney Olympics?

The options are tough enough but it is impossible to predict how the executive committee is going to vote because there is so much politics involved.

What I know for sure is that the World Cup decision should not come down to a roomful of executives. There should be a much larger electorate and it should feature a wider range of people of more ages and backgrounds.

The current committee is like an exclusive, "old boys" club. Most of these gentlemen are in their 50s and 60s, if not older, and have been part of the hierarchy for over 10 years.

They have built such intertwined personal relationships that in many ways they are as familiar as a family. But does this mean they have lost the ability to to be objective when it comes to dealing with the many people they know well connected to the countries that are bidding to host the tournament?

I am not going to comment on the allegations of corruption surfacing from a Sunday Times sting operation or a BBC program. Money never actually changed hands when the newspaper approached the executive committee members in question, and the officials implicated in the television report were cleared in court a few years back.

However, the revelations will no doubt impact the thoughts of the chosen few bestowed with the power to vote on who should host future tournaments. They are a family after all and any such knock to the collective reputation, accurate or otherwise, will have hurt collective feelings; no doubt about it.

As far as the World Cup vote is concerned, let's take a look at how it should change. In my mind, the hosts should be decided in the following manner:

- Every one of FIFA's 208 member associations should have an internally elected representative who would take part in the vote.

- These elected representatives would have terms of four to six years, so they would never vote on more than one World Cup host ballot.

- All members would gather in Zurich and vote until an absolute majority winner is found.

These measures would surely help to freshen up the image of FIFA and in my view they would represent a more balanced and fair reflection of what the football world thinks and feels.

And surely, with each voter having less power, the chances they would be approached with bribes would surely diminish? Either way, it will be as much a surprise to me as to the millions of fans tuning in around the world, when the host are finally announced. But maybe you know something I don't?

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The much anticipated BBC documentary detailing the probe into FIFA’s handling of World Cup bids was finally aired, with some unsurprisingly surprising results: they’re quite dirty.

The man running the show is the rather infamous Andrew Jennings, who earned his fame by running afoul of FIFA, writing a book on their dabblings on the wrong side of integrity.

Though informative, unfortunately we can only assume nothing will change, as this is FIFA, and FIFA’s been doing whatever it wants for years.

Still, however, a good watch.

[Via 101 Great Goals]

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Japan’s Softbank mobile network provider is now offering (Google translation) Apple’s iPad to subscribers free with a two-year service agreement. Japan is the second country to offer subsidized pricing for Apple’s popular tablet, after Orange and T-Mobile announced its plans for the U.K. last week.

Softbank will give you the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model iPad for free, so long as you sign up for a two-year 3G data plan, which will cost you around $55 per month. It also looks like that data plan provides unlimited usage, too. Not a bad deal, considering I had to pay full price for my iPad and still have to pay more than $35 a month for 5GB of usage.

In fact, if I do the math, my plan plus the price of the original iPad purchase (here in Canada) comes to $1607.27, while the Softbank deal works out to only $1344. That’s a savings of $263.27, provided I renew my data plan every month for two years, which I almost definitely will.

The deal starts Dec. 3, and is only a limited time offer extending until Feb. 28, 2011. If I still lived in Japan, I’d definitely go this route instead of buying directly from Apple. Especially considering that last time I checked, cancellation charges for exiting a contract early weren’t at all severe when dealing with Japanese network operators.

Orange and T-Mobile also recently revealed their specific subsidized device pricing plans, with the Wi-Fi + 3G model available for £199 (~$309 U.S.) on a £27 (~$42 U.S.) per month plan over two years. That plan gets you 1GB of anytime usage, plus an extra 1GB between 4 PM and midnight. Grand total: $1317 U.S. Again, better than what I paid, though you do get less data.

Compare that to what you can get in the U.S. with Verizon, data plans start at $20 for 1GB of data and run up to $80 for 10GB. With those deals, you’re also buying the Wi-Fi only version, remember, and a Verizon MiFi. The entry-level bundle will cost you $629 for a 16GB iPad. With the entry-level data package, your two-year total comes to just $1109. But if you’re a heavy user, that goes up quickly to $1920 for the closest to unlimited offered by Verizon. Softbank’s deal, by contrast, will save you $576.

Of course, Verizon also has the advantage of providing a MiFi in the bargain, which you can use with your smartphone and notebook, too. The iPad with 3G built-in can’t share it’s connection at all. Still, if you’re looking for a single-device connected everywhere solution, a MiFi might not be among your top priorities. In fact, it could hinder your overall portable, since you have to account for two devices instead of one.

Personally, I’d opt for a subsidized deal if something similar were offered here in North America, even given the possible advantage of a Verizon MiFi and the freedom of not being locked in. These packages look appealing to anyone else?

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Protesters burn a placard with a picture of Irish PM Brian Cowen in Dublin on November 27.

The EU bailout for Irish banks failed to quell financial markets. Borrowing costs for Portugal, Spain and others continue to rise, because structural problems created by the euro and single European market remain unaddressed and more crises are inevitable.

In the United States, banks engage in dollar-denominated deposit gathering and lending. The smooth functioning of the banking and payments systems are guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Treasury and Federal Reserve.

When banks fail, the FDIC makes good on deposits up to $250,000 by subsidizing mergers with healthy banks.

If banks are too big to be merged-for example, the recent Citigroup and Bank of America rescues-the Treasury and Federal Reserve can step in. Such extraordinary measures are possible, because the Treasury can issue dollar denominated bonds and the Federal Reserve can print dollars. The latter was critical during the recent crisis.

In the EU, individual member states regulate and guarantee the banks that take deposits and lend in euro. The Irish government guarantees covers all liabilities – not just deposits up to $250,000.

Major banks in smaller member states have grown too large for their Treasuries to act. They simply can't issue enough euro denominated bonds without driving up their borrowing costs to prohibitive levels and thrusting regular government operations into insolvency.

In Ireland, the government is potentially on the hook for liabilities equal to two times GDP-no government, big or small, can borrow that much money.

The analog in the United States would have been for North Carolina to have been responsible for all the liabilities of Bank of America.

Prior to its banking crisis, Ireland had sound finances and a balanced budget. Now it has a deficit exceeding 30 percent of GDP, and even with the EU aid package, it faces draconian budget cuts. Along with lost banking business, those will reduce GDP by more than 10 percent and impose grave hardships on citizens who neither profited from the bank industry nor were responsible for its reckless behavior.

Without European wide bank regulation and deposit insurance, reasonable ceilings on government guarantees, real EU taxing authority, and a mandate for the EU Treasury and European Central Bank to use bonding and currency printing authority to ensure the stability of banks, Ireland's banking crisis won't be the last of its kind.

Similarly, the budget problems in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain stem from social spending, health care and pensions more generous than their economies can finance with any conceivable national tax regime-if national taxes are raised too high, businesses will flee, and GDP and tax revenues actually fall.

Whether social benefits are too high throughout Europe is an important issue, but the creation of the single European market has heightened expectations that benefits in southern Europe more nearly approximate the norm established in Germany, Holland and other rich countries.

However, the creation of the single European market for goods and services was not accompanied by pan European taxation to finance social spending, health care and pensions. Even though Germany and others are richer by virtue of their participation in the single EU market, they don't assist poorer countries in the manner that New York subsidies social security and Medicaid in Mississippi as part and parcel to the benefits its banking, advertizing and other service industries receive from participation in a single market across the fifty states.

The austerity now planned for poorer counties will not solve their basic fiscal problems-those will shrink their economies and tax bases. The $750 billion EU bailout fund is nothing more than a quick fix that boots the problem to the next generation of national leaders.

In the days before the euro, national government debt was denominated in national currencies, and governments could inflate and devalue their way out of a fiscal mess. That's just a stealth way of imposing losses on bond holders but in a more gradual, economically less costly, and politically palatable manner.

Now the EU has announced plans for private investors to take losses on bonds issued after 2013 if the weaker governments need another round of bailouts. The fact is sovereign governments in Athens, Lisbon and elsewhere already can enforce such losses on bondholders, and if they choose, boot the euro, reinstate national currencies and start over.

A common currency and single market in Europe simply won't work without continental institutions to guarantee the solvency of banks and share social spending, health care and pensions. Until then, the bonds of individual member states carry high risk of eventual default, and investors would do well to demand much higher interest rates than have been offered in the recent past.

Peter Morici is a professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland School, and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

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Nov. 24: In this publicity image released by Disney, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse pose with actors Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas and their children, Dylan, 10, left, and Carys, 7, in front of the Epcot theme park Christmas tree in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP)

Michael Douglas says he feels “stronger every day” after completing an aggressive round of treatment for his throat cancer, according to a report from People magazine.

Still, the 66-year-old actor tells the magazine, “it’s a long road back” to feeling 100 percent.

Douglas celebrated the holiday weekend with a trip to Walt Disney World with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, 41, and their two children, Dylan, 10, and Carys, 7, People reported.

A source told the magazine, “These things can either tear families apart or make them stronger. This has definitely made them even stronger.”

Earlier this year, Douglas revealed he had a walnut-sized tumor at the base of his tongue. He was given an 80 percent chance of survival with eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, which he has completed.

The “Wall Street” star said a persistent sore throat sent him to the doctor multiple times before a biopsy finally found the tumor.

Douglas says he will find out in January if the cancer has been eliminated completely.

Douglas tells the weekly Hollywood Reporter that he’ll play the title part in Steven Soderbergh’s “Liberace,” which is set to begin shooting in May or June. He says that his cancer diagnosis has brought him closer to his father, Kirk Douglas, and that the disease “has shown me what family is.”

Douglas also reflects on his recent difficulties with ex-wife Diandra Douglas and his son’s incarceration on drug charges.

The article appears in the issue on newsstands Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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While many were busy stuffing their faces with turkey, and filling malls to the brim on Friday, some new, interesting rumors about the iPad 2 came to light. The rumors included some obvious claims, but one seems out of left field: a built-in USB port.

DigiTimes is reporting that the Chinese-language Economic Daily News claims the iPad 2 will definitely include five new features, including a video phone, better mobility (presumably a smaller form factor), USB port, Retina Display and 3-axis gyroscope. USB is really the only surprise on that list.

FaceTime is widely expected to make its way into the next iPad iteration, and if it doesn’t, I’ll be very surprised. A smaller physical footprint is in keeping with Apple’s general upgrade strategy. Both the iPhone and the iPod touch continue to get a little bit smaller with each new case update. The Retina Display isn’t as sure a bet, since it could be fairly pricey on the supply side to bring 336 ppi resolution to the 9.7-inch screen, but Apple does seem quite committed to the technology. A 3-axis gyroscope is an obvious choice, since one already ships in both the iPhone 4 and latest generation iPod touch.

Basically, the only rumored feature without precedent among the rest of Apple’s iOS devices is the new USB port. From a UX perspective, obviously, it’s a no brainer. You wouldn’t have to get Apple’s Camera Connection Kit to import photos from your digital camera, and in theory, you could use wired keyboards with the iPad 2, along with potentially many other hardware peripherals.

But USB on an Apple portable has always made good sense from the perspective of the consumer, yet we’ve never seen it before. That’s because Apple’s dock connector has long been the only data-compatible port on any of its iOS devices. It keeps the accessory ecosystem under control, and allows Apple greater say over how, with what, and for what purposes users can access their devices.

If Apple was going to introduce USB anywhere in its iOS lineup, the iPad 2 would be the most likely suspect. That’s because people use the Apple tablet more like they would a PC than a smartphone. A USB port that allows compatibility with more computer peripherals then makes sense, in terms of attracting more potential notebook buyers to the iPad 2 instead. Also, design-wise, there’s much more real estate on the iPad’s case edge than on the iPhone’s or iPod touch’s, so adding a port wouldn’t be as much of a compromise for Steve Jobs’ decidedly minimalist tastes.

I still think USB is a longshot, but if it makes sense anywhere in Apple’s mobile lineup, it makes sense on the iPad 2. Do you think we’ll actually see it included? Existing iPad owners, do you think it would even add that much to your experience?

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(CNN) – In the wake of the bailout of Ireland’s banks – and the bailout of Greece still fresh in mind – investors are wondering who will be next.

Several countries in Europe have pushed through tough austerity measures, and the European Commission says those measures will take a toll on economic growth. It's predicting growth in the 16-nation eurozone at 1.5 percent next year, slightly lower than an earlier forecast.

All the uncertainty has weighed on European stocks and the euro, which has dropped 6.1 percent against the dollar the past month.

On Tuesday Asian markets closed largely lower, as concerns continue that the European debt problems will spread to other European markets, especially from Portugal. The Central Bank of Portugal comments that consolidation of public finances is needed is putting pressure on the markets.

Portugal doesn’t have the bank woes on scale of Ireland, nor the public debt problems on par with Greece, said Vanessa Rossi, senior economist at Chatham House, on World Business Today. “Nevertheless, it’s still between a rock and a hard place,” she said.

Will Portugal, or perhaps Spain (whose government debt yields continue to climb, raising its borrowing cost), be next in line for a Eurozone bailout?

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Kim Kardashian will die on Wednesday.

At least that’s what her new ad says.

The reality star and endorsement-loving star is taking part in a “Digital Life Sacrifice” campaign for World Aids Day, where she is quitting Facebook and Twitter until $1 million is raised for HIV/AIDS awareness.

Yes, that’s $1 million. An amount she probably could have just donated. We’re just saying.

But anyway, Kardashian poses in a coffin, in full hair, makeup and tight dress, all to send a message.

The event is organized by Alicia Keys’ “Keep a Child Alive” organization. Other celebs who opted to digitally die include Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Ryan Seacrest, Serena Williams and Katie Holmes.

“It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up,” Keys said. “It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

The campaign, she said, puts the disease in perspective.

“This is such a direct and instantly emotional way and a little sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention,” said Keys, who has more than 2.6 million followers on Twitter.

The foundation, which began in 2003, will accept donations through text messages and bar-code technology, which is featured in the charity’s Buy Life campaign. Raised efforts support families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

“It’s about love and respect and human dignity,” she added.

Keys said recruiting celebrities was difficult because of scheduling, but “once I got people on the phone and I was able to paint the concept for them, everybody was in.”

Not one person said no, Keys recalled.

“I have a feeling that Gaga is going to raise it all by herself,” Blake said. Lady Gaga has more than 7.2 million followers on Twitter, and nearly 24 million fans on Facebook.

The campaign begins Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Whatever happened to a good, old-fashioned telethon?

What do you think of these ads?

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Last quarter was one for the record books for Apple: $20 billion in revenue, 14.1 million iPhones sold, 3.89 million Macs, and 4.19 million iPads, but that record may be broken as soon as the end of January, when Apple’s first fiscal quarter ends, according to a pair of surveys from IDC and ChangeWave Research.

As Fortune‘s Apple 2.0 blog reports, a ChangeWave survey of 2,812 American consumers shows increasing interest in Mac laptops, up from 25 percent in October to 36 percent in November. Not coincidentally, that time frame covers the launch of the rejuvenated MacBook Air, and DigiTimes is confirming the success of the new portable. According to component suppliers, shipments of Mac laptops will average one million per month during the fourth quarter, with 20 to 25 percent of that volume attributed to the MacBook Air.

While desktop enthusiasm remains flat at 24 percent, Apple’s share still stands to grow as demand overall in the PC market is down. This suggests another big quarter is coming for Mac sales. Last year, the increase in Mac desktop sales from the pre-holiday quarter to the holiday quarter was about ten percent. This year, if Apple manages to repeat that feat, it will result in 4.3 million Macs sold for the holiday quarter. That’s a lot of Macs, especially as the desktop market overall continues to shrink.

But Apple will likely sell even more iPads. AppleInsider quotes an NPD survey asserting that 11 percent of respondents are planning to purchase an iPad by February 2011. How many of those purchases will occur before January, when some anticipate the iPad 2 to be unveiled, is unknown, but analysts have been adjusting their estimates of iPad sales for the holiday quarter upward. With Apple selling 4.19 million iPads last quarter, six million iPads before the close of January doesn’t seem unrealistic. To put that in perspective, iPod sales routinely double from around ten million to 20 million during the holiday quarter.

That leaves only the iPhone as the unknown this quarter. While it’s hard to imagine surpassing the 14.1 million sold last quarter, expectations of ten million or better certainly aren’t far-fetched. Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones during the holiday quarter in 2009. Put this all together, and the conclusion is pretty simple: Apple will take home quite a haul from the holidays.

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has dismissed suggestions that her diplomats are part-time spies, as suggested by the latest batch of documents released by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
 
“Let me be very clear — our diplomats are just that, they’re diplomats,” Rice told reporters at the United Nations where she was peppered with questions about the latest chapter in the WikiLeaks scandal. “Our diplomats are doing what diplomats do around the world every day, which is build relationships, negotiate, advance our interests and work to find common solutions to complex problems.”
 
She didn’t exactly deny the charges of espionage. But the top U.S. diplomat in New York did reject the idea that there would be any diplomatic fallout from the release of thousands of documents obtained by WikiLeaks, some of which have been published by The Guardian and other newspapers.
 
One U.S. diplomatic cable published by The Guardian shows how the State Department instructed diplomats at the United Nations and elsewhere around the world to collect credit card and frequent flyer numbers, work schedules and biometric data for U.N. officials and diplomats. Among the personalities of interest was U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as were the ambassadors of the other 14 Security Council member states. 
 
There is nothing new about espionage at the United Nations, but it’s always embarrassing when classified documents proving it happens surface in the media.
 
Most Security Council envoys declined to comment on the WikiLeaks documents as they headed into the council chambers on Monday for a meeting on North Korea. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, however, told reporters, “Surprise, surprise.”
 
Churkin should know. One of the diplomats in his charge was implicated earlier this year in a high-profile Russian espionage case in the United States in which nearly a dozen people were accused of being part of a Russian spy ring that carried out deep-cover work in the United States to recruit political sources and gather information for Moscow. The U.S. Justice Department said that an unnamed diplomat at the Russian mission to the United Nations had delivered payments to the spy ring.
    
And then there was the man known as “Comrade J”, a Russian spy based in New York from 1995 to 2000. Working out of Russia’s U.N. mission, Comrade J directed Russian espionage activity in New York City and personally oversaw all covert operations against the United States and its allies in the United Nations. According to a book about his exploits, Comrade J eventually became a double agent for the FBI.
 
Nor does the history of U.N. espionage end there. In 2004, a former British cabinet minister revealed that British intelligence agents had spied on Ban Ki-moon’s predecessor Kofi Annan, who fell afoul of Washington and London by opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 
    
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was also the victim of a phone-bugging operation, according to media reports from 2004. He had also opposed the invasion of Iraq and angered the United States by saying that their intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s alleged revival of his nuclear arms program was not only incorrect but partly based on falsified evidence. U.S. officials pored over transcripts of ElBaradei’s telephone intercepts in an attempt to secure evidence of mistakes that could be used to oust him from his post, the reports said. Not only did they fail to unseat him, he went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

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