12/21/24
December 02, 2010
World Cups Awarded to Russia in 2018, Qatar in 2022: FIFA has announced that soccer's World Cup will take place in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, dashing the hopes of England, the United States and other bidders. The country of Qatar has 1.6 million people. More than 3.1 million attended the last World Cup in South Africa.
Very disappointed. Congrats to Qatar, but I was already getting excited for 2022 in the States. '94 was a huge experience for me making me into an international soccer follower.
posted by sbacharach at 11:04 AM on December 02, 2010
Qatar's plan is to build stadiums solely for the games, tear them down and send them to poor countries to reassemble. That will leave a nice carbon footprint.
posted by rcade at 11:06 AM on December 02, 2010
Absolutely gutted by this. I can't help but feel there were some improprieties on Qatar's part here. Not knowing too much about the country, it wouldn't appear too feasible to hold such an event there.
posted by Ricardo at 11:07 AM on December 02, 2010
It is almost as if FIFA doesn't want futbol to increase in popularity in North America . . .
posted by geekyguy at 11:12 AM on December 02, 2010
Money talks in both cases. Both countries were the biggest risks.
posted by trox at 11:14 AM on December 02, 2010
I can't help but feel there were some improprieties on Qatar's part here.
You mean the fact that their bid was a set of solid gold letters arranged to spell out "PLENTY MORE WHERE THIS CAME FROM"? (h/t The Bugle.) It's farcical, everyone knows it's farcical, and I'd give it a few months for the dust to settle then place a nice bet that it ends up somewhere else.
posted by etagloh at 11:31 AM on December 02, 2010
I'm not sure why Qatar's bid is so controversial. An middle-eastern nation has never hosted the World Cup.
They've held other major soccer events, like the Asian Cup and the under-20 World Cup. It's not like this is a wasteland for soccer.
My only concern is the financial stability of Qatar in 2022. And the heat, but they claim to have a method to control that in the stadiums.
I'm going to say the Atlanta 1996 Olympic bid and the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic bids were far more suspect.
posted by grum@work at 11:47 AM on December 02, 2010
Qatar is just around the horn from Yemen, so AQAP can readily slink over and do their deadly deeds with the whole world watching.
Closest thing to room service I can think of. Silver platter and all. The zealots no doubt are already praising the divine deliverance of the infidels to their doorstep.
No need to pack PETN into an air traveler's undergarments or a few mysterious express parcels when you can massively outdo Munich 1972 with a few manageable strokes.
Yemen will be even more unstable and dangerous in a few years than it is now. They will have run out of potable water by the time the WC arrives on the peninsula.
Mayhem will be very challenging to prevent.
Sepp Blotter is more like it.
posted by beaverboard at 12:28 PM on December 02, 2010
And the heat, but they claim to have a method to control that in the stadiums.
Yeah, it's said that they're having an air conditioning system built to have the temperature at 88 degrees. Just great!
posted by BornIcon at 12:32 PM on December 02, 2010
Heh. A friend pointed out that when you load in "Qatar World Cup" into Google and then start typing "a" it autocompletes to "Qatar World Cup alcohol." Stay thirsty, my friends.
posted by Skot at 12:45 PM on December 02, 2010
"A middle-eastern nation has never hosted the World Cup" - but does it make sense to award the hosting to a country with a population of 1.6m whose capital city has 2 airports with a total of 3 runways where alcohol is at best tolerated (and that's being generous)? In its defense, it is a central location to both Europe, Asia, and Africa.
posted by kokaku at 12:59 PM on December 02, 2010
Qatar has also never even qualified for the World Cup Finals and is currently ranked #113*. Australia would have been a much better choice.
*I know that the FIFA world rankings are a little suspect, but if your ranking has 3 digits, you don't belong in the World Cup.
posted by bender at 01:09 PM on December 02, 2010
Given Qatar's automatic bid to the tournament as host, will it be the worst team ever in the competition?
posted by rcade at 01:31 PM on December 02, 2010
I am very pleased to be hosting the 2022 World Cup. Not sure how to accommodate the crowds, though. Guess I'll have to clean the guest room.
(For the record, I am not actually from Qatar and have never been there, but "Qatar" or "The Qatarian" -- I know the proper term is "Qatari", but whatever -- has been my cyber-alias since I came online. This has been a fun joke for me today for those who have known me long enough.)
posted by TheQatarian at 01:47 PM on December 02, 2010
Qatar is also a Middle Eastern country that isn't especially controversial (beyond the fact that its now chosen as the site for the 2022 World Cup), so if you're determined to have the cup hosted in the Middle East, you could make a far more politically controversial choice.
Also, with the direction world economics seem to be headed, if I were an international body, I'd want to be courting Middle Eastern viewers and participants over North Americans, too.
posted by Joey Michaels at 02:07 PM on December 02, 2010
So England lost its bid. Can't say I'm surprised. Of course now the BBC will be blamed because of the FIFA corruption episode of Panorama that aired on Monday probably.
Shame about the US. A) it would have been great to go back, and B) being in Canada the matches would have aired at a sensible time for me.
posted by Drood at 02:40 PM on December 02, 2010
Qatar is just around the horn from Yemen, so AQAP can readily slink over and do their deadly deeds with the whole world watching.
Just like what was going to happen in South Africa.
And Salt Lake City.
And Vancouver.
And Turin.
And every other major world sporting event since 2001.
Nothing says "You win!" more than cowering in terror all the time.
Qatar is going to be making this a "Arab nations" World Cup, so I have to assume that all of the nations will make it in their best interest to have a successful World Cup. If something untoward does happen, I imagine that the support for Al-Qaida (public and private) will take a pretty big hit.
posted by grum@work at 03:07 PM on December 02, 2010
[pedantry] Title of thread says Qatar gets the 2012 World Cup, not 2022. [/pedantry]
posted by boredom_08 at 03:08 PM on December 02, 2010
Well then, they'd better hop to it, eh?
posted by wfrazerjr at 03:27 PM on December 02, 2010
Fixed.
Qatar could probably get ready by 2012.
Rather than building stadiums and infrastructure, Qatar should simply acquire a more populous nation with adequate World Cup facilities.
posted by rcade at 03:31 PM on December 02, 2010
That leaves England out then. I like the sound of "Scotland: Now Brought to You By Qatar!"
posted by yerfatma at 03:52 PM on December 02, 2010
Grum: Well said. This constant terrorism bullshit is so stupid. I grew up with my country routinely being blown up by the IRA. Perhaps that gives me a more sane and sensible perspective.
The problem is, like Formula One, the Middle East is the billionaries playground now. They'd rather play in the sun than a wet track in France. Who gives a shit if the racing is garbage, there's money to be made.
Same with FIFA. I mean imagine the kickbacks FIFA will get from such a rich country?
As an ex-pat I'd have been very pleased to see England get it.
posted by Drood at 05:45 PM on December 02, 2010
I like the sound of "Scotland: Now Brought to You By Qatar!"
This reminds me of a segment on TV Nation, the old Michael Moore show.
In the 90s, the British government declared that they will leave the Falklands if that is the wish of the islanders. The Argentinian government promised to give each and every citizen of the Falklands $1,000,000 if they will vote to become part of Argentina and give up their British citizenship, but they still voted to stay part of the British Empire or whatever.
TV Nation went to a town in Wales with a similar population of the Falklands, and found that the residents were willing to renounce their British citizenship and become part of Argentina for $1,000,000 each.
Too bad the town did not have a World Cup class stadium.
posted by Aardhart at 06:36 PM on December 02, 2010
Qatar is also a Middle Eastern country that isn't especially controversial
I'm hoping that Israel and Iran both qualify. Let's see if they let the teams in, let alone the fans.
And what will the fans do exactly between games? It won't take more than half an hour to get to the next venue, and there's not much to see on the way.
You'd think that FIFA only cared about money and TV revenue, not the fans' enjoyment.
What? Oh.
posted by owlhouse at 08:21 PM on December 02, 2010
Spot on, Owlie. Not to mention that air conditioning the stadiums does nothing for the time spent out of doors otherwise, such as, oh, TRAINING FOR THE PLAYERS. Maybe they will just dome over the whole 30km radius to control the temps?
posted by billsaysthis at 01:26 PM on December 05, 2010
So what they're really saying is I should start making Russian mob contacts now?