Qatar will host the 2022 Football World Cup
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 29 Jun 2010 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
Australia's Andres Quintana charges for the ball during their World Cup qualifier clash against Qatar on Saturday, June 14 at Al Sadd Stadium Doha. AP Photo/STR
Football politics is a hard ball game, where ambition, treachery, corruption, political and economic influence, perfumed or manured by vast dollops of money, dictate the outcome of every major decision. It is this heady milieu that makes it almost inevitable that Qatar, a fabulously rich country, will win the hosting rights to the 2022 Football World Cup.
An informed source has told me that the FIFA president, Joseph S. Blatter, Sepp Blatter to the punters, wants another term as presiding official of world football. But the chairman of the Qatar’s 2022 Bid Commitee, His Excellency Sheik Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has the numbers to prevent this.
A deal will be done to square this circle.
Blatter will get his final term as present. And Qatar will win the hosting rights to the 2022 Football World Cup.
A deal cut this way effectively kills off the bids from the USA (which could not win its latest Olympic hosting bid); Japan (which has already hosted a Football World Cup); and Australia (which is out its league in a world of big finance football politics played for the highest of stakes).
The heart of the Qatar bid, aside from the politicking of getting Blatter another term as FIFA president, involves a geo-political consideration that the Middle East region is a powerhouse and a powder keg.
FIFA, like the IOC, likes to think of itself as an organisation that uses sport, in this case football, as a force for peace in the world.
The Qatar bid has 750 pages.
It has 2,000 pages of supplementary documents and covers in great detail all the relevant issues ranging from accommodation, transport, security, environment and stadium infrastructure. This massive documentation is backed up with all the required government guarantees and agreements.
The bid is an example of money not talking but actually shouting out its power and authority.
It is not entirely beyond the bounds of belief that if a successful Football World Cup is held in Qatar, that FIFA could be in line for a Nobel Prize for Peace. The appeal of this to the marketing programs and self-esteem of FIFA, which boasts it has more member nations than the United Nations, cannot be over-estimated.
Qatar’s 22-chapter bid document makes the case that if it wins the hosting rights, 2022 will be the first World Cup held in the Middle East.
“In Qatar, history and the future will come together in an historic choice of Host Nation, in a global age with medias and technology bringing continents closer together – Qatar is truly in the Middle, neither East not West. Qatar proposes a World Cup that will perfectly reflect the FIFA slogan: ‘For the Game: for the World.’”
Qatar has the third largest gas reserves in the world:14 per cent of all the known resereves. It has the highest or second highest (after Liechenstein, depending on the source) per capita income in the world, and the fastest growing income.
It has the tiny population, however, of 1 million, swollen to about 2 million with foreign workers and business people.
On the face of it, it is improbable that such a small country in terms of population, with a climate that makes it unbearable to be outside for most of the year, could hope to host a football tournament that involves 32 teams and 12 stadiums.
But the bid makes clear that all the stadiums will have “ground-breaking” cooling systems, fan zones and training grounds: “Fans, players and officials will be able to enjoy cool and comfortable open-air conditions, not exceeding 27 degrees celsius climate.”
The state of the art cooling modules and some of the modular stadiums will be given to developing countries after the 2022 tournament. The carbon-neutral technology developed for the tournament will create enough solar power for energy to be put into the national grid when the stadiums are not in use.
The Middle East, African and Asian nations (the Third World bloc) are certain to support Qatar’s bid.
Europe, also, because of the convenience and time-zone considerations of a tournament based in Qatar, together with the deals that the major nations can tie-up with Qatar and its supporters on the Arabian, will come on board.
Blatter will bring in the South American countries.
It’s hard to see in all of this just where Australia hopes to get votes for its bid.
Its football team is higher ranked than Qatar’s. But so is New Zealand’s. Australia may be new territory for FIFA to bless with a World Cup tournament.
But so is the Middle East.
The Qatar football team is out of its league on the field. But off the field, Qatar is very much a big player in world and football politics. This weight will be too much for FIFA to resist when it comes to naming the host of the 2022 Football World Cup.
“And the winner is … Qatar!”
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June 29th 2010 @ 10:32am
Cpaaa said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:32am | Report comment
Spiro driving the sword through Australian hearts and then giving it a twist….ooouch.
I loved the article for its theory and content, but my heart is still pumping until December comes and then the truth will set me free.
This is Australias first bid, and i think they have made some mistakes regarding the stadiums. But im trying to stay positive.
June 29th 2010 @ 10:33am
Mick said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:33am | Report comment
Are they going to air condition the 32 training venues, I have never been able to find out about that?
My source tell me a few confederations are not happy with the stop & search laws in usa of anybody with a latino appearance combined with nfl stadiums that are not wide enough for football.
It is all speculation & everybody has sources but nobody except those closest can predict this & I broke my vow of writing about it
November 30th 2010 @ 10:05pm
unicorn4711 said | November 30th 2010 @ 10:05pm | Report comment
Please stop it with the allegations of US racism. Yes, it is real. Yes, there are problems, but please understand it is an extremely complex issue. First, the Arizona law is not US Federal policy. It does not apply in other states. Second, the courts have struck down many provisions, based both on potential problems and due to the idea that the Federal government, not the states, has the power to determine immigration policy. Third, the Arizona law is not outwardly racist as it portrayed. It only requires that those who are REASONABLY suspected to be illegal be searched. Reasonable suspicion in US law is a term that by definition requires “specific and articulable facts.” Having a Latino appearance does NOT meet this standard. Many in the US, including myself, are upset by this law because it solves our illegal immigration problem (11 million and growing!) the wrong way, but the allegations that the US is a police state where every brown-skinned person is stopped on the street with threats of deportation is absolutely ridiculous. Instead, the Federal government ought to enact laws that more fully punishes employers that hire illegals and set up procedures to create a truly national identification card so that legal residency can more easily be determined (ID is currently a state issue). The Arizona law was embarrassing because it gives too much power to the local police over immigration, opens the door for abuse (ignoring the legal standard of specific and articulable facts), and demonstrates that the Federal government in Washington has been completely inept at dealing with immigration. Please, however, do not confuse this potential for abuse with blatant, outward rounding up of all people who look Latino. The Arizona law was an example of the states trying to solve a problem (illegal immigration) that they shouldn’t even have to bother with in the first place.
And, as far as the NFL stadiums are concerned, they seemed to work in 1994 just fine. Those attendance records have yet to be matched. Only a US hosting of the World Cup could break them. There are more factors than potential attendance records for FIFA to consider but attendance is the cornerstone of why the US would be a good pick. Australia also has many advantages. Of the three, Qatar seems to be the weakest selection in my opinion. Constructing massive stadiums always has a big environmental impact and corresponding damage. In Qatar, those stadiums will go mostly unused after the event.
June 29th 2010 @ 11:51am
Gavin Norman said | June 29th 2010 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Spiro, if Australia fails to secure the Soccer/Football World Cup, do you think they’ll try and bid for the 2023 Rugby World Cup? Or is it 10 years too early?
I’d love Australia to win the 2022 World Cup, however considering the competition, perhaps this could be a back up plan.
June 29th 2010 @ 1:10pm
Chuq said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
Bid? I didn’t think Australia bid for Rugby or Cricket world cups, or rather the bid process is a mere formality – Australia gets one every 5-6 times as a matter of course.
June 29th 2010 @ 6:52pm
Alders said | June 29th 2010 @ 6:52pm | Report comment
We have had the rugby to ourselves once. We have had the cricket only once or twice. Great post.
June 29th 2010 @ 4:21pm
mahony said | June 29th 2010 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
A rugby union world cup is to the football world cup what the AFL world cup is to the rucby world cup. It is no ‘back up plan’ – that is for sure. It would eb a very distan conselation prize indeed….
June 29th 2010 @ 10:34pm
Alders said | June 29th 2010 @ 10:34pm | Report comment
Not an accurate statement. Have you seen the growth if the rwc? With Olympic funding the game us set for a major boom.
June 30th 2010 @ 1:29pm
MVDave said | June 30th 2010 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
Its likely that more people will watch the WC final than will watch the entire Rugby WC combined (given that the last Rugby WC final was watched by 35m world wide and in the perfect timezone for TV)…so still a little way to go Alders…but at least we now know where your allegiences lie and probably explains your negativity towards football.
June 29th 2010 @ 12:38pm
Tom said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Qatar have the money to build 10 indoor stadium.
I think we are dead and buried for the 2022 bid.
June 29th 2010 @ 12:48pm
Eamonn Flanagan said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
Spiros great to hear your thoughts on football……finally. What a surprise it’s a piece that knocks the Aussie bid or at least spruiks with some dodgy analysis a competitor bid. Very well informed all of a sudden about the world of football aren’t we?
How come you’ve been so silent on other football issues down the years. Got the scoop on video technology, or something insdie the Socceroos camp. Who’s the next Aussie Coach or more importantly who do you think it should be? What about what should Frank and Julia do to counter the so-called Qatari threat.
Here’s hoping you are wrong of course, but either way maybe you could write more often on football, the game, the tactics and other insights.
Different sport same analysis. Try it!
June 29th 2010 @ 12:58pm
md said | June 29th 2010 @ 12:58pm | Report comment
This is a dodgy article Spiro.
Go and wikipedia Qatar.
It has 1 city. Roughly size of Adelaide. And one other, roughly the size of Dubbo. And then you run out of places to build stadiums…
And, if all of the required building goes ahead, there will be 1 stadium seat for every 3 Qataris. 1 Hotel room for every 4 Qataris.
This article is troublemaking rubbish and puts you periously close to the Rebecca Wilson category of anti-football nutters. I don’t think you quite belong in that company… so do better next time.
June 29th 2010 @ 1:19pm
Redb said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
Pretty hard to beleive this article has any crediblity at all. Informed sources??? name and shame then Spiro, dont give us informed sources. I didn’t know Rosella had invented it….
Qatar? no chance.
USA much more likely.
June 29th 2010 @ 1:20pm
Chuq said | June 29th 2010 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
The concept of a Qatar bid is good – but the country is not physically capable of holding a FIFA World Cup that fulfils all the criteria as mentioned.
Air conditions stadiums – great – most people visiting would spend less than 3 hours every couple of days inside a stadium. what about the 90% of the time people spend NOT inside a stadium?
2022 is between Australia and USA.
June 29th 2010 @ 2:50pm
chaka said | June 29th 2010 @ 2:50pm | Report comment
I suspect that somewhere along the line, the Australian bidders/public will do or say something offensive that will kill our chances. Hosting the FIFA WC is not an Australian entitlement.
June 29th 2010 @ 3:06pm
Chuq said | June 29th 2010 @ 3:06pm | Report comment
So by using that logic …
http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2010/06/27/covers/front062710.jpg
the USA is out of contention for 2022 now?
June 29th 2010 @ 4:42pm
chaka said | June 29th 2010 @ 4:42pm | Report comment
USA soccer has strong ties to Central and S America.
However in Australia, I sense there’s much more xenophobia towards our Asian competitors – we see ourselves as European. Takes one guy from the FFA to open his mouth and ruin it all.
June 29th 2010 @ 3:12pm
eric said | June 29th 2010 @ 3:12pm | Report comment
I would be surprised if Qatar, with its small population, mid-40s temperatures and bans on public drinking, skimpy female attire and rowdy behaviour, win the bid.Blatter is only one of 24.