The Boy Who Cried Gulf

Ever since December 4th 2010, everything about the 2022 World Cup has been made up on the spot. Nothing about it has seemingly been thought out before the bidding was made, a winter World Cup is on the cards, messing around with the European leagues and adding to the overall pain of it all Michel Platini has once again had to get involved.

The President of UEFA has called for not a Qatar World Cup, but instead, a World Cup which incorporates the whole of the Gulf. You know, Bahrain, UAE, that’s all involved in this idea from Platini.

The one positive to take from this is that some of the FIFA committee have realised Qatar alone can not hold a World Cup, that it isn’t feasible, that it isn’t possible.

Just a big shame that this realisation has come a month and a half too late. None of this was ever mentioned in the bid by Qatar in the build up to the big vote. No mention of moving it to the winter, no mention of it not being fully in Qatar at all.

Why should a bid change just because FIFA told them so? To me, this isn’t FIFA’s problem until at least 2020, when they see if the building is on schedule and that everything is on time. This is now down to the organisers of the bid, they said nothing about a winter World Cup, so it should be held in the summer (even if logistically it is a nightmare) and it should be in Qatar, no where else (even if logistically it is a nightmare).

Spreading the World Cup around the Gulf will be a nightmare, all the building plans for the new stadiums being built might as well be chucked out the window. Remember that nice thought where they would transfer the stadiums to the third world countries, forget it, might as well not happen.

And Qatar are not the finest nation (up to 105 in the world at least), but a few more of them? UAE are slightly better (102nd), Bahrain are flying in 93rd. Then there is Oman in 104th and Yemen in a toasty 127th. We want the best teams in the world playing in the best international competition in the world. Not some pretty average teams who will struggle in the group stages, lose some teams who will be competitive, no other Asian teams might as well bother trying to qualify.

Anyway, does Michel Platini have any right to go on and say what the Qatar World Cup should be like? He is the President of UEFA, no interest what so ever on Asian football. He should care more about Russia and 2018, and just that.

In theory it seems sensible, spread it around. But it is too late, you can’t promise one thing and then change it completely, it undermines the entire bidding process. USA, Australia, Korea and Japan might of well not have bothered, or maybe they should have promised unreasonable things, but get to change them after wards. It is what FIFA are doing to Qatar, and I can’t imagine Qatar are too happy about it.

Qatar Got Your Tongue?

Depressing isn’t it. Just thinking about it. Russia and Qatar get to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively and in reality, its just down to one little object, money.

Oh, hold on, maybe this is me getting too far ahead of myself. Russia do have a good vision, lets face it, there might have been a little swapping of money (key word is might), but apart from that everything else is in good shape. The plan for the stadiums looks promising, all set to build brand new stadiums that will no doubt be spectacular and good for football. I think Russia is a good choice and despite it hurting that England didn’t win the World Cup bid, I’m not too fussed really. It does annoy me that it was helped over the line by the exchanging a bit of cash (possibly), but that complaint comes at another time.

But Qatar. Seriously?

To me, there were two good bids for the World Cup in 2022 and those were Australia and the USA. They had the stadiums, the infrastructure and even if its not their first country, it will no doubt manage to fill each and everyone of their seats. Something to be proud of, seeing football trying to improve itself in those territories. It sounds great to me, doesn’t it?

But it went to that tiny nation of Qatar, the 164th largest area of land on earth. Just to put it into perspective, its smaller than the Falkland Islands. How on earth it is expected to host one of the largest sporting events in the world is beyond me. It can’t surely. Its too small, the country has never made it to the World Cup before and so very wrong.

Lets look at the logistics. Its small. The smallest World Cup hosts of all time, how they expect to allow so many fans into the country is impressive. Qatar has a population of 900,000. About 1/3 of that will be making its way into the country to support their respective teams, how they expect to support so many fans in such a tiny space will be difficult.

As well as this, there are set to be 12 stadiums in the World Cup, 6 of them, that is half, are all based in one city, Doha. It is amazing how they expect to put half of the entire World Cup in just one city. It won’t work, it simply can’t.

And then my friends, is the weather. At least for once, we are guaranteed one constant in 2022. Unbearably hot weather. An average of 41 degrees Celsius, conditions no football should be forced to play in. In fairness to Qatar, they agree with me on this. But they want to play football in air conditioned stadium. I’m sorry, football should not be played in artificial conditions. Expose it to the weather, and that is another nail in the direction of Qatar. There are rumours, of moving it to a colder part of the year. In that case, give it to another country. Why ruin a domestic season of the majority of leagues around the world just to accommodate the World Cup? Oh look, here we are, its club vs. country all over again.

Qatar as a footballing nation too, are unbelievably awful. They have never qualified for a World Cup, ranked 113th in the world (which is worse than Wales, who are 111th) and haven’t won in their last 13 Asian Cup matches. Granted, its 2010, twelve whole years until 2022, no doubt they could improve their ranking, not by much though, maybe they could get in a few foreigners, Qatar have the money don’t they. It might just be enough to not end up worse than North Korea did this year.

Yes, South Africa were in a similar status, albeit just a bit better, but not expected to put up a fight against anyone. But what South Africa had was fans, fans with passion. And put the vuvuzela to one side, that was a remarkable World Cup for them. There was a lot of talk about those South Africans getting something they’ve never had in their lives, a once in a lifetime achievement. Everyone was on their side, and they got some memorable results, who could forget Tshabalala’s strike against Mexico, or the remarkable win over France. They might have failed to get past the group stages, but they put up one hell of a fight and took their Bafana Bafana on a sensational journey.

I can’t see the Qatari people having the same enthusiasm. I can’t see the stadiums being packed. I don’t see it working at all for the fans.

Finally, I’ll hit at massive ethical reasons. This is a country which does not recognise Israel (though will allow them to compete should they qualify), or any other major religions which just don’t happen to be the same as the one they believe in. They discourage drinking in public places, something which will have to be changed in time for the World Cup, to keep the sponsor Budweiser happy, no doubt. And the big one, sponsorship laws, or ‘modern-day slavery’. How can a nation that does such actions be allowed, have the right, to host the most prestigious footballing event in football.

Oh, that’s right, money. Lots and lots of money. How silly of me to forget. Its illogical in every sense of the word, it won’t work, it can’t work. Australia and USA have so much better bids, but no, they didn’t have the money.

Logic should return in 2026. USA and Canada maybe, or even just USA. But with the 100 years of the World Cup coming up, no doubt that will end up in the hands of either Uruguay or Argentina, or maybe both.

The next hope for England though. Sadly, looks to be 2034. 68 years of wait and all that.