Qatar World Cup Plans Beg Questions of FIFA Leadership

Details of the Qatar 2022 World Cup preparations have begun to emerge and can only make for one question: what kind of plans were the members of the FIFA committee looking at when voting for the Persian Gulf nation?

Football is the world's game and FIFA is correct in beginning to open up the event to developing nations. But when looking at the circumstances of what will be the first global sporting event in the Middle East, it is hard not to think that something really untoward went down.

First, a little bit about Qatar. Like many oil rich nations of the region, they are highly dependent on these natural resources for their wealth. Crude oil is 60 percent of Qatar's GDP and their current production rates are only expected to last until 2023. Although after that they have five percent of the world's natural gas reserves sitting off the coast.

As their resources are depleted they will need to expand into other areas of economic growth, such as tourism. Which is of course why they put in a bid to host the 2022 World Cup. Raising the country's profile through the world's most watched event would go a long way. But given the following profile, why were they even allowed to put in a bid?

Qatar ranks "not free" in all categories when graded on their political and civil liberties scores. They are run by an absolute monarchy. Which in today's world should be laughed at as an antiquated, illegitimate and terribly unfair form of governance. FIFA, with its state like influence, should be promoting democratic principles, not pandering to the desires of a fictitious king.

Despite being the first Arab nation to allow women the right to vote, not much else in terms of niceties could be thrown their way. Their rules on alcohol will certainly deter most World Cup fans from attending. The sauce is banned everywhere, including one's home, without a special permit. Sodomy still carries a five year prison sentence. They also have a very dubious record on their treatment of foreign migrant workers, who incidentally will be doing all this construction. I don't think we need to go any further in pointing out the flaws in their human rights record.

Now let us look at this from a football perspective. The average high in June/July in Qatar is 41 degrees Celsius. This resulted in their plan to air condition the stadiums or, as many have already seen, to have floating "clouds" that will shade the pitch while matches take place. Ridiculous. In addition, they are a nation of 900,000 people taking a place in the World Cup Finals. It's like trying to piece together a world class team from Delaware.

Lastly, to the most recent news to come from the planning committee. In order to prepare for this event they are spending $220 billion. This includes $45 billion alone to build a city, Lusail, to host the opening and final matches. Yes, you read that right. They are building a city that barely exists as of today. Did someone say housing bubble? Almost $50 billion will be spent on air conditioning. Not very environmentally friendly to say the least. This comes with the back drop of South Africa only generating $4 billion in revenue. The numbers just don't stand up to any cost/benefit analysis. 

All in all, of course, it is not the worst thing that ever happened in the world. For the people of Qatar, I am sure it will be great to get all new infrastructure and transportation facilities. But if these were the plans from the beginning (to include stadium "clouds" and spend some country's GDP on construction), how can any reasonable human being think that this was the best option for the 2050 World Cup, much less the 2022?

Well, we all know the easy answer to that question. Therefore, it is time that we pushed out the current clowns running FIFA and get some reasoned, caring people that are not out for their own gain, but for the betterment of football and the people who support it.