Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar
Russia is hosting the 2018 World Cup and Qatar is hosting the 2022 tournament, and there is nothing we can do about it. The announcements were made this morning by the FIFA executive committee in Zurich, Switzerland following corruption allegations of bribery for votes that led to two of the 24 FIFA committee members being excluded from the decision. It has made everyone question the entire selection process of the world’s most popular and profitable sporting event, and changes will likely be put in place by FIFA for the future.
First, Russia was chosen over England, Spain and Portugal, and Netherlands and Belgium in a secret vote behind closed doors for the 2018 World Cup. It was a heartbreaking defeat for the sport’s originator England, which hasn’t hosted the World Cup since winning it for the only time in 1966. Russia Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said FIFA will not regret the decision and is ready to make history together.
For the 2022 World Cup, the tiny Middle Eastern nation of Qatar was chosen over the United States, Australia, and Japan and South Korea. Since you probably don’t know anything about Qatar, it has a population smaller than Houston and a land mass smaller than Connecticut. Qatar promised to overcome the 130-degree heat with air conditioned stadiums in a 30-minute presentation to the FIFA committee mainly explaining how the World Cup could unify a region ravaged by conflict. Another point that helped the cause was a promise to dismantle the stadiums built for the tournament and give them to needy nations. Bid chairman Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad Al-Thani was gracious to FIFA for giving Qatar a chance and promised to not let the governing body down.
The biggest losers for 2022 is the U.S., which was hoping to bring back the World Cup for the first time since 1994, which resulted in a then-record 3.58 million tickets sold. The U.S. hoped hosting would help the slow but steady growth of Major League Soccer and the popularity of the sport in the country. It was the second major international sporting loss of the year for America after the International Olympic Committee chose Rio de Janeiro over Chicago for the 2016 Olympics. Coincidentally, Brazil is hosting the 2014 World Cup.
Now, the U.S. must wait until 2026 to compete for another bid to host the World Cup. Since Qatar was selected for 2022, FIFA excluded China for 2026 since the same continent cannot host consecutive World Cups.
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