For the first time in history FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) chose Qatar, a small, oil-rich middle-eastern country, to host the 2022 World Cup.
This is the first time that a Middle-Eastern country has been chosen to host this event, and it is the smallest country chosen since Uruguay in 1930. Qatar beat out Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.
One problem that Qatar is faced with is being able to cool open-topped stadiums in their extreme desert conditions. FIFA was worried that these extreme conditions would compromise the health of the players and fans.
However, Qatar stated that they plan to use solar-powered cooling systems which have never been used before to cool a stadium. Supposedly seats will be cooled by pumping air around the spectators’ neck and ankle area.
One stadium in particular, where they are planning to host the first and last game of the tournament, will be completely surrounded by water and will seat 86,000 people.
Even still some doubt the participation of many European clubs solely based on the climate. In fact, soccer super-power England is very opposed to this decision. There is even speculation that FIFA voters accepted bribes to rig the voting.
Some are fearful that Qatar is not economically stable enough to build the stadiums and accommodations for the World Cup. especially since there are already doubts about Qatar’s last minute construction schedule for the Asian Games to be held there next year.
Qatar has plans to spend around $100 billion to boost infrastructure and diversify the hydrocarbon dependant economy. This includes doubling the number of hotel rooms, building nine stadiums, refurbishing three stadiums, constructing a rail and metro system, re-connecting the world’s longest bridge from Qatar to Kingdom Bahrain and finishing a new airport, which should be operational next year.
Another worry is Qatar’s ability to attract sports fans from around the world. They have some tourist attractions like beaches, markets, camping and camel rides but they fall short in the most important tourist attraction for the World Cup: bars and alcohol vendors. World Cup fans are known to have an unquenchable thirst for alcohol.
For example, in the 2006 World Cup, hosted by Germany, more than a million liters of beer were sold in the stadiums alone. It raised Germany’s annual beer consumption by 190.4m-liters.
This poses a problem because Islam, the predominant religion of the region, forbids alcohol consumption. However, since Qatar has a totalitarian government they can change laws on a whim, and thus they could override the current alcohol restrictions.
Qatar has some big challenges ahead of them in preparing for the 2022 World Cup. They not only have to deal with infrastructure problems in their own country but they have to deal with showing soccer clubs and fans that Qatar is a safe and fun destination for the 2022 World Cup.