If you've ever wondered to what degree bribes influence World Cup selection, to find a worse location than Qatar you would almost have to put the World Cup in Antarctica or under the ocean.
By just about every measure they considered in every official analysis, Qatar was rated as the worst choice.
Total attendance in South Africa 2010 was 3.1 million. Qatar has a population of 1.9 million.
They also promised some magical stadium air conditioning tech because the regular environmental of Qatar would make having a big outdoor tournament impossible. Big surprise, relying on not-yet-invented tech is looking like it won't work and they are already saying they may have to move to the coolest part of the year.
Just one more specific example: FIFA requires there to be 6 different host cities, while Qatar only had three. They got around this by saying they would 'build' four new cities in time for the World Cup.
By just about every measure they considered in every official analysis, Qatar was rated as the worst choice.
Total attendance in South Africa 2010 was 3.1 million. Qatar has a population of 1.9 million.
http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1kf33g/epl_ceo_joins...
They also promised some magical stadium air conditioning tech because the regular environmental of Qatar would make having a big outdoor tournament impossible. Big surprise, relying on not-yet-invented tech is looking like it won't work and they are already saying they may have to move to the coolest part of the year.
Just one more specific example: FIFA requires there to be 6 different host cities, while Qatar only had three. They got around this by saying they would 'build' four new cities in time for the World Cup.
It's a travesty.