This past Thursday the FIFA selection committee announced that the small Middle Eastern country of Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, beating out the likes of Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United States.
Really? A country that is considered “progressive” within the Middle East for allowing women to drive is hosting what essentially amounts to the world’s largest party.
It’s also illegal to be gay in Qatar, so… don’t ask, don’t tell.
Can someone please explain to me why a country the size of Connecticut needs 12 soccer stadiums? I get that Qatar has one of the highest GDP per capita ratios in the world, but what exactly is a population of 1.6 million people going to do with a bunch of solar powered, air conditioned stadiums? (On a side note, the total attendance of the 1994 World Cup in the United States was three times that of Qatar’s current population.)
The Bird Nest in Beijing sits unused; let’s not even start about South Africa’s problems.
Perhaps most frustrating is the reasoning behind the selection of both Qatar and the 2016 host, Russia. Qatar is a compact country connected by railways, making travel easy for fans and teams alike. This is also a characteristic of England, who lost the 2018 bid to Russia, a country with a big population of largely soccer-ignorant fans, like the United States… who lost their bid to Qatar.
Until about 15 years ago, Qatar’s economy was split evenly down the middle between fishing and pearl diving. Following a coup in 1995, the country became oil rich.
Now, I’m not saying Qatar’s oil barons had anything to do with this, but even Cecil Newton would think this is a raw deal.
Before anyone dismisses this as a sore loser’s conspiracy theory, let us not forget that two executive committee members, Reynald Temarii and Amos Adamu, dressed up as political lobbyists and informed reporters in the United States that they could guarantee a vote for the United States’ bid for $800,000.
Adamu, a Nigerian (go figure) and president of the West Africa Football Union, claimed he needed the money for to pay for four football stadiums in Nigeria. No word on how many fleeing princes were involved.
For the record, though, I am a sore loser. But it’s Qatar! I could walk across the country during my lunch break. Sepp Blatter, if you want to give it to a country who hasn’t hosted before, at least go with Australia, where it won’t be 130 degrees during the matches.
Let’s not totally ignore the fact, either, that this tournament is 12 years from now. In the last 12 years of history in Qatar, women gained the right to vote and a border dispute with Bahrain was resolved. I wish I were making this up.
Being the soccer fan I am, I certainly hope for the best for all parties involved, but with such ambitious (re: pipedream) goals and the very real possibility that Qatar as we know it today could be radically different by 2022, one can’t help but be concerned. I certainly understand FIFA’s desire to lay down roots in parts of the world where soccer has room to grow, but when a country’s greatest athletic accomplishment is making it on SportsCenter’s “Not Top 10,” maybe it’s time for a more creative solution than sticking the world’s largest athletic event within spitting distance of a country whose president believes the Holocaust is a myth.
It’s not all bad news, though. Russia is hosting in 2018! Now Sarah Palin can watch the World Cup from her house.
John Davis is a junior majoring in USA! USA! USA!
