By James Cox
Anyone remember when Fifa gave Qatar the 2022 World Cup? Well now Uefa president Michel Platini has suggested that instead it could be played across the whole of the Persian Gulf.
This is of course, something that was never discussed in their proposed bid that won the right to host ahead of the likes of Australia, Japan and America, neither was the idea of moving the event from July to January, another idea Fifa are mulling over.
The reason there may be a winter World Cup is that it can get so hot in Qatar during the summer months it could become unplayable, and the decision to use a host of countries must be because there are fears the nation would not be a fit stage alone. Is this not the most ridiculous notion ever suggested?
- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Moving a World Cup directly in to the middle of European football’s domestic season would be catastrophic, it could easily ruin a host of leagues during the 2021/2022 season through injury, fatigue and a lack of preparation would result in a poor World Cup. Fifa have repeatedly stressed that this event is 11 years away, but this is no excuse. It will not work.
Fifa appear embarrassingly accommodating to a country that seems unable to deal with the huge task of holding the tournament, this is strange after running a particularly fine comb through each nations’ bids when deciding the hosts of 2018 and 2022.
This doesn’t necessarily mean corruption is at play, which is what a lot of England believes to be the reason why Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup. Fifa’s known dislike of English football is almost understandable when you think of the mindless views of some semi football fans, who believe their country deserved a World Cup purely because their nation invented the sport, when this failed to materialize it was thought this was due to a corrupt Fifa. Arrogant opinions like this have stained England’s football reputation across the world.
It would certainly appear that Sepp Blatter and Fifa seems determined to hand the World Cup to a nation who have never hosted before every four years, 2010 to 2022 reads South Africa, Brazil, Russia, Qatar. Blatter’s reasons for this could be noble, but could also be to improve his own stature within the sport.
Regardless, the one gripe England could have with Fifa, is with this in mind, they never stood any chance of winning the right to host, this much is obvious now after receiving a shockingly low two of twenty-two votes from the Fifa committee. You would think they could have mentioned this during the exhaustive process of putting a bid together, it could have saved a lot of time.
