It’s 2 December 2010. All of the FIFA officials have voted and the press are awaiting the announcement of the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments. The first announcement comes that Russia have won the 2018 World Cup – not a massive surprise. Then the room hushes as the next announcement comes.
The 2022 World Cup will be held in… Qatar? The announcement is met with a muted applause; did he read it right?
Yes indeed, Qatar is the selected host of the 2022 World Cup, fending off opposition from Australia, Japan, South Korea and the USA. They also did so completely legally, after claims of bribery and corruption were retracted in 2011. But, since then, the bid has been through a series of hitches, including concerns over scorching temperatures and potential discrimination.
If things such as these were issues, why was Qatar selected? The answer lies in the fact that the Middle East region as whole was seen by FIFA as a largely unexplored market for football in which there is plenty of disposable income to spend on things such as football.
The bid for the World Cup also had wonderful plans for air conditioned stadia that would cool the pitch to a more reasonable 20-30 degrees centigrade instead of the temperatures of 40 degrees plus that often prevail in Qatar during the summer. These are plans that have somehow evaporated in just a couple of years; instead, FIFA now want a winter World Cup to solve the heat problem.
There are three main problems with Qatar hosting the World Cup. The first is that the bid was made for a summer tournament – if this wasn’t feasible for Qatar, they should have campaigned for a change in the bidding process. A winter World Cup will mean players will not be available for their clubs for around two months, which will disrupt every major European league, even those with a winter break already.
Secondly, the huge problems with discrimination in Qatar are at odds with FIFA’s promotion of inclusion. In Qatar, women must wear completely covering clothing even in scorching heat, whilst any intimacy is banned and can lead to an arrest. Homosexual behaviour is also banned, thus potentially putting off homosexual fans and players that may have wished to watch or participate in the World Cup.
Thirdly, nothing that was included in the bid has actually been built yet. This includes nine of the stadia, a high-tech public transit system, ‘fan zones’ for purchase and consumption of alcohol, which is illegal in public, 55,000 extra hotel rooms for fans to stay in, a causeway linking Qatar and Bahrain, which is said to cost $3bn, and $42.9bn of investment in culture and exhibits.
The Qatar bid is fatally flawed; the fact they have already gone back on promises that the heat wouldn’t be a problem must naturally arouse suspicion as to whether their other claims are viable. One of the most persuasive elements of their bid was that they were intending to donate the cooling technology to other countries where heat is a similar issue when completed, but even this will seemingly no longer happen.
FIFA has three options – it can simply try to hold Qatar to its promises, accepting that the World Cup will be in summer and hope that their grand schemes do come to fruition. Alternatively, they could hold the bidding process again, but with Qatar bidding for a winter-based World Cup, or remove Qatar as hosts and hold the bidding process for a summer World Cup without Qatar involved.
Though I believe that the 2022 World Cup should not be held in Qatar, I am unfortunately just a mere journalist. FIFA have spoken, and everything seems to be pointing towards a winter 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Scott Johnson, Sports Team
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