2 December 2010. A windowless conference room inside the Messe Zurich. Twenty-two men, secret paper ballots, two World Cups awarded in a single afternoon. Russia 2018. Qatar 2022. Bill Clinton in the audience expecting the United States to win — and, by his own staff's later account, throwing an ornament at a hotel mirror that evening.

In this episode:

- Round-by-round vote totals for both ballots — including England's two votes for 2018 and Qatar's fourteen-to-eight final-round defeat of the United States

- The bidders in the room: the Triple Crown delegation, Bill Clinton and Morgan Freeman, the Emir of Qatar, Igor Shuvalov standing in for Vladimir Putin

- The vote-trading allegation between Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 — what the Garcia investigation found, and what the destroyed Russian computers prevented it finding

- Why FIFA changed the rules afterwards: the 2026 award (USA / Canada / Mexico) was the first decided by public Congress vote

Key documents cited:

- FIFA Executive Committee voting records, 2 December 2010

- Garcia Report (full text, released 27 June 2017)

- Australian Senate inquiry into the FIFA World Cup bid, 2014–2015

Full transcript and source links: thefifafiles.com/episodes/8-the-vote

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