Qatar 2022

To the world, football or soccer is an obsession and to the U.S. it is a yawn. That is because all Americans follow baseball or American football or basketball. While the U.S. hosted the world cup in 1994, the attention never really picked up. In 2010, the U.S. entered a bid to host the world cup in 2022 against a tiny country on the other side of the world called Qatar.

Months before the final decision came, the contest itself seemed like a no brainer. The U.S. hosted the world cup before, has all the stadium necessary, has a huge economic market, a big country that can absorb all the tourists that will come to support, etc. Qatar however never hosted the world cup, does not have all the stadiums, and is a very tiny country. In Essence, Qatar was and still is an unknown.

Qatar is a very small country in the Middle East with a population of just over a million. Qatar is also one of the richest countries around the world due to its oil and gas reserves. It is also the home of Al Jazeerah news channel which is slowly gaining momentum around the world. Qatar is now also the home to some of the US prestigious universities such as Carnegie Mellon , Georgetown, Northwestern and Cornell University. But that does not make Qatar win the glorious world cup bid. So why did they win ? And how did they win ?

Why did they win ? They won for several reasons. First is the fact that the FIFA tries to be fair sometimes. That is why the 2010 World Cup was giving to South Africa. That is because they were supposed to get it in 2006 but they lost to Germany who put a lot of political pressure to win. Therefore, the FIFA decided to give it to South Africa in 2010. Now, due to the fact that the Middle East never hosted the World Cup, it was bound to come to Qatar when they asked for it.

The second reason is the fact that Qatar planned this in a highly professional manner which is something the Middle East is not very used to. They asked highly successful soccer player to come and support their bid. They hosted many soccer games in their stadium with international teams such as Manchester United and Barcelona. Not only that but they brought international soccer stars Zinedine Zidane, Gabriel Batistuta, Ronald De Boer, Pep Guardiola, Roger Milla, and Bora Milutinovic. These names represent a multitude of different countries who support Qatar which is another country. All these names who are giants in the soccer world of course made a big impact on the judges.

The third reason is money of course. Qatar made a wonderful campaign to gain the world attention which required a lot of money. So they paid money to get the help of football stars and they hosted international teams. They even hired Lambie-Nairn which is an international branding company to sponsor their bid. Thus, I disagree with those who say they paid for the votes because they really did not need to do that. Just go look at their website and their bid and you will know they did an astounding job.

The fourth reason is the forward thinking implemented by Qatarians who decided to build stadiums that can be recycled to give to developing countries. I mean that alone would have been an enough reason for them to win the bid. The idea is basically that once the World Cup is over, these stadiums would be dismantled and shipped to other developing countries who need it. It is a win-win for Qatar and everyone else.

The fifth reason is of course the astounding stadiums designed to host the world cup. Beside having the ability to being recycled, the stadiums are eco-friendly, they use solar power to cool the fans and the players. There are also the highly technological stadium with a cover of outside screens for the fans outside and of course the wonderful architecture in the stadiums overlooking artificial peninsulas and the Gulf.

On the other side we will see the usual boring smugness of the American bid. The American message was very simple: "We already have the infrastructure, we are America so pick us" The US bid lacked inspiration, serious preparations and planning. I don't think I saw one piece of advertisement for the US 2022 bid in any media. Furthermore, the USA bid did not really have the powerful ambassadors that Qatar carried. Sure, we brought Bill Clinton and Morgan Freeman but in the world of Soccer, they are not as powerful as Zidane or Guardiola. Even if you look at the US bid website, you will find it rather boring and lifeless.

Of course the decision to give the World Cup to Qatar came under heavy criticism from around the World. The US was not happy to lose to such a tiny country that is smaller than the state of Connecticut. Others stated that it would be too hot to play there in the summer since temperatures rise dramatically. Even some Arabs criticized Qatar because it allowed a Jewish child to be part of its presentation.

While Arabs should rejoice, some of them indeed do, some feel as if they have won a war against the US and the West in general. To me, that is backward thinking. I think the Middle East and the Arab world in general should only focus on themselves. Whether there is a conspiracy against them or not that is not something they should think about. Only the weak look for excuses for his failure. Only the strong learns from his failure and builds on it. And I feel that Qatar did that.

Of course there are issues such as the presence of alcohol, sex, drugs and of course the scorching heat. I feel that alcohol; sex or drugs are issues that are not really grave. I am also sure that Qatar will play blind to such matters because it will benefit greatly from it and because they understand that these things are part of the World Cup. As for the scorching heat, there are two solutions. One is the cooled stadiums and that is already part of the planning and playing the world cup during winter, which is being discussed.

Qatar played it right. It did a wonderful job in many aspects. It outmaneuvered the U.S. politically, economically and socially. It did everything to gain the World Cup and it deserves it. So congratulations to Qatar and as FIFA's motto say "For the Game, For the World" .

Sources:
http://www.ussoccer.com/About/USA-Bid.aspx

http://www.qatar2022bid.com/