Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Dec 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) It came up as a huge shock to most football-lovers, when the nation, that could never qualify for the World Cup Football, was handed over the responsibility to host 2022 World Cup. This is a nation that not many football fans know about. It never had any significant football history, nor does it have much political influence in the world of sports. FIFA has ranked Qatar in the 113th position, and ESPN ranked it as 108th. It could never qualify for the Confederation Cup too. In such a scenario, many football fans felt that settling for this nation for the 2022 football was not a wise decision.

Although allotting the 2022 football hosting duties to Qatar sparked celebrations on the streets of national capital Doha, many feel that the tiny Gulf country is not going to be a good choice for football spectators. First of all, the nation is too hot during the summers. Qatar’s bid chief executive, Hassan al-Thawadi, however, defended that heat will not be a big problem, as they will be making arrangements for carbon cooling systems to keep down temperatures in the stadiums. However, Fifa’s technical report on the bid said that there involves a “potential health risk” as the temperature often reaches as high as 47C during summer. The Qatar bid was also subjected to sever allegation that said it got involved with illicit vote-swapping pact with the Spanish-Portuguese bid. However, Qatar’s bid was beaten by Russia, who would be hosting the 2018 World Cup.

However, there are also good things about conducting the World Cup in Qatar. With a size of 4416 square miles and a population of 1.7 million people, traveling from one stadium to the other would be easier. The small economically rich nation is also capable of arranging high quality football field.