In my other thread, people were asking why Qatar deserved it instead. Fair enough, I just assumed everyone actually looked at the bids. Instead of having to repeat my answers to everyone in the thread, I thought it would be best to present why Qatar deserves the right to host the 2022 WC and tackle some issues about Qatar all in one place. Note that I have done more research since my previous thread, so there is more information about the planning that would help in answering your questions and fear.
Location
Qatar is a Middle Eastern nation. No World Cup has been held in the Middle East before and it's no secret that Blatter and FIFA want to spread the game and World Cup to new regions. It is also the belief that the game will bring peace and harmony between Arabs and Israel if the World Cup is held in the Middle East. Whether you believe that bullshit or not, FIFA sort of do and Qatar's presenters played a bit on that. Bringing the World Cup to Qatar will greatly improve the interest in the sport (which is already #1), especially among the youth, just like it did for USA in 1994. The value of the football market in the Middle East is projected to grow $14 billion simply by putting the World Cup in Qatar.
With Qatar almost in the middle of the World (much closer than their opponents), the television viewing experience would be the best. Billions of people would be viewing the match at prime time. The exact figures are 3.2 billion prime-time viewers, 2.9 billion afternoon and night viewers, and 570 million morning viewers.
Not only is it great for television, but for traveling for teams and fans. Around 2 billion people are within 4 hours away (by plane) from Qatar.
So if you ask me, the most money is going to be made (from FIFA's perspective) in Qatar and USA.
Size and Population
I have noticed several people criticize Qatar for being so small in size and population. I'm not sure how that's a bad thing and in fact I see that it helps Qatar. With a small population, more seats will be available for fans coming from outside. Also with the small size, the longest distance between any two stadiums is one hour or less. You can attend your team's match on one side of the nation and go attend another group's team on the other side of the nation the same day. Also, costs of traveling will be cheap. Imagine going across the country in the USA to watch two matches?
The distance between Bahrain and Qatar is a 30 minute drive. Not all the visitors need to stay in Qatar to attend the World Cup. They can get hotels in any of the neighboring nations and not travel a lot to make it to Qatar. That not only helps Qatar's tourism, but the other surrounding nations' tourism as well.
Construction
No doubt, Qatar has the ability to build world class stadiums, transportation, and other infrastructure. They are allocating $50 billion for infrastructure. So there is no fear over whether Qatar has the funds to build so much in 12 years. Remember, 12 years!! Every government guaranteed to build this nation for the 2022 World Cup has already been signed. This isn't South Africa. Qatar can fund and finish all the stadiums and construction on time. You have on the richest economies in the WORLD backing this up. Look at how much Qatar has built over the past few years already. They have also successfully held the 2006 Asian Games that had more than 30 events for men and women. According to the presentation, Qatar is already 78% complete with FIFA's requirements. By 2022, Qatar will be at 187% of FIFA's requirement. Now let's watch in awe...
Air-Conditioning Technology
You all heard about the open air conditioning technology used in the stadiums. I learned today that not only will it be in the stadiums, but in fan zones, training pitches, walkways, Metro stations, and between stations and stadiums. Basically the whole fucking country is air-conditioned.
If you are doubting how this technology works with open roofs in stadiums, believe me it will work. First of all this technology isn't new. It's already being used in one of Qatar's existing stadiums. The proposed technology for the World Cup is just a second generation advancement and will be installed in all the stadiums. It basically uses solar power and converts it to electricity. Then it has air-condition vents along the floors (below the seats). That way the cold air hits you before it even leaves the stadium. Not only that, but the ceiling is equipped with some kind of technology that brings the cold back air towards you when it reaches the ceiling.
By the way, most of the matches will be at night. As you might have learned in science class, the temperature in a desert drops dramatically at night. So the temperature in Qatar during the games will be about 80 F or 27 C.
Alcohol
Qatar is a Muslim nation and has Sharia law. But, Qatar has already vowed to loosen these laws during the World Cup to make it easier on people. That means alcohol, among other things, will be permitted and you can enjoy getting drunk all you want. Although I wouldn't recommend getting too drunk. One reason is alcohol increases your chance of dehydration. There are many more reasons as to why you shouldn't get drunk, but I doubt you all care.
Israelis will also be allowed in the nation despite Qatar not officially recognizing the nation. Their government is talking about starting to engage with Israel anyways after the more liberal son of the former leader took over.
Also, when is the last time a terrorist act happened in Qatar? I haven't heard of any sort of terrorism there. And in a World Cup event, security will be high in any place in the world.
Qatar National Team
Football in Qatar has been in an amazing rise over the years, especially among the youth. By the time 2022 comes along, Qatar shouldn't be as poor in talent as they are now. They have some great potential in their current youth. 12 years is plenty of time for any nation to improve their team and to even become worse. What's to say that Australia's team or USA's team will be as good by 2022? Anything can happen in 12 years. Footballing nations don't always improve over time. You have bad generations sometimes. And let's look back at South Africa. A few MONTHS before the World Cup, South Africa was shit compared to the top African nations. They didn't even qualify to the 2010 African Cup of Nations. But look at what they did in the Confederations Cup and World Cup with their home support? I think Qatar can at least reach South Africa's potential by 2022. They will be hosting the 2011 Asian Cup, let's see what they do then. They also claimed that their women football is on the rise in Qatar.
Legacy
Legacy is one of the guidelines FIFA put out to the bidders. As I said before, this is the first World Cup in Qatar and the Middle East. All the benefits that come with that are great. But another thing to point out (which I haven't seen any other bidder do) is care about the environment and developing nations. As many of you know, Qatar plans on removing most tiers of their stadiums and donating them to developing nations in warm weather areas with their air-conditioning technology. Speaking about the air-conditioning, the technology will be solar powered. Also, zero carbon cooling technology = good for the environment.
Presentation
Besides all the facts that are in a bid to host a World Cup, one of the most important factors in deciding the hosts depends on how those facts are presented. You might be a perfect candidate for hosting the World Cup, but if you can't prove it, it's pointless. If you watched the presentations, Qatar had arguably the best presentation out of the 2022 bidders. Their presentation was professional, spoken in 3 different languages, and attention grabbing. It's OK if you have to suck up to the voters by speaking in their language, it's part of selling yourself.
Now, compare that to USA's presentation. Although they had high profile people, like Bill Clinton and Morgan Freeman, I have to say their presentation was boring. They seemed to spend more than half of the presentation convincing the voters that America is a highly diverse nation. No shit, we already know that. I didn't hear much about what they actually plan on doing. Not to mention the small things like Morgan Freeman skipping a page in his speech and Bill Clinton calling the sport soccer after everyone before him was calling it football.
Qatar put a lot of effort in this bid and I have to admit they deserve it. If you really want something, you will do all you can to achieve it. It also helps to have people like Pep Guardiola and Zidane supporting your bid (even if they had to pay them to sponsor their bid).
------------
I believe I have covered everything here, but if there are still some concerns, I will try to research it. I would like to lastly say, have faith in Qatar. People doubted USA in 1994 and look what happened. People doubted South Africa and look what happened. I think Qatar has the best qualities of both the USA and South Africa to make this a World Cup to remember for good reasons.
Location
Qatar is a Middle Eastern nation. No World Cup has been held in the Middle East before and it's no secret that Blatter and FIFA want to spread the game and World Cup to new regions. It is also the belief that the game will bring peace and harmony between Arabs and Israel if the World Cup is held in the Middle East. Whether you believe that bullshit or not, FIFA sort of do and Qatar's presenters played a bit on that. Bringing the World Cup to Qatar will greatly improve the interest in the sport (which is already #1), especially among the youth, just like it did for USA in 1994. The value of the football market in the Middle East is projected to grow $14 billion simply by putting the World Cup in Qatar.
With Qatar almost in the middle of the World (much closer than their opponents), the television viewing experience would be the best. Billions of people would be viewing the match at prime time. The exact figures are 3.2 billion prime-time viewers, 2.9 billion afternoon and night viewers, and 570 million morning viewers.
Not only is it great for television, but for traveling for teams and fans. Around 2 billion people are within 4 hours away (by plane) from Qatar.
So if you ask me, the most money is going to be made (from FIFA's perspective) in Qatar and USA.
Size and Population
I have noticed several people criticize Qatar for being so small in size and population. I'm not sure how that's a bad thing and in fact I see that it helps Qatar. With a small population, more seats will be available for fans coming from outside. Also with the small size, the longest distance between any two stadiums is one hour or less. You can attend your team's match on one side of the nation and go attend another group's team on the other side of the nation the same day. Also, costs of traveling will be cheap. Imagine going across the country in the USA to watch two matches?
The distance between Bahrain and Qatar is a 30 minute drive. Not all the visitors need to stay in Qatar to attend the World Cup. They can get hotels in any of the neighboring nations and not travel a lot to make it to Qatar. That not only helps Qatar's tourism, but the other surrounding nations' tourism as well.
Construction
No doubt, Qatar has the ability to build world class stadiums, transportation, and other infrastructure. They are allocating $50 billion for infrastructure. So there is no fear over whether Qatar has the funds to build so much in 12 years. Remember, 12 years!! Every government guaranteed to build this nation for the 2022 World Cup has already been signed. This isn't South Africa. Qatar can fund and finish all the stadiums and construction on time. You have on the richest economies in the WORLD backing this up. Look at how much Qatar has built over the past few years already. They have also successfully held the 2006 Asian Games that had more than 30 events for men and women. According to the presentation, Qatar is already 78% complete with FIFA's requirements. By 2022, Qatar will be at 187% of FIFA's requirement. Now let's watch in awe...
Air-Conditioning Technology
You all heard about the open air conditioning technology used in the stadiums. I learned today that not only will it be in the stadiums, but in fan zones, training pitches, walkways, Metro stations, and between stations and stadiums. Basically the whole fucking country is air-conditioned.
If you are doubting how this technology works with open roofs in stadiums, believe me it will work. First of all this technology isn't new. It's already being used in one of Qatar's existing stadiums. The proposed technology for the World Cup is just a second generation advancement and will be installed in all the stadiums. It basically uses solar power and converts it to electricity. Then it has air-condition vents along the floors (below the seats). That way the cold air hits you before it even leaves the stadium. Not only that, but the ceiling is equipped with some kind of technology that brings the cold back air towards you when it reaches the ceiling.
By the way, most of the matches will be at night. As you might have learned in science class, the temperature in a desert drops dramatically at night. So the temperature in Qatar during the games will be about 80 F or 27 C.
Alcohol
Qatar is a Muslim nation and has Sharia law. But, Qatar has already vowed to loosen these laws during the World Cup to make it easier on people. That means alcohol, among other things, will be permitted and you can enjoy getting drunk all you want. Although I wouldn't recommend getting too drunk. One reason is alcohol increases your chance of dehydration. There are many more reasons as to why you shouldn't get drunk, but I doubt you all care.
Israelis will also be allowed in the nation despite Qatar not officially recognizing the nation. Their government is talking about starting to engage with Israel anyways after the more liberal son of the former leader took over.
Also, when is the last time a terrorist act happened in Qatar? I haven't heard of any sort of terrorism there. And in a World Cup event, security will be high in any place in the world.
Qatar National Team
Football in Qatar has been in an amazing rise over the years, especially among the youth. By the time 2022 comes along, Qatar shouldn't be as poor in talent as they are now. They have some great potential in their current youth. 12 years is plenty of time for any nation to improve their team and to even become worse. What's to say that Australia's team or USA's team will be as good by 2022? Anything can happen in 12 years. Footballing nations don't always improve over time. You have bad generations sometimes. And let's look back at South Africa. A few MONTHS before the World Cup, South Africa was shit compared to the top African nations. They didn't even qualify to the 2010 African Cup of Nations. But look at what they did in the Confederations Cup and World Cup with their home support? I think Qatar can at least reach South Africa's potential by 2022. They will be hosting the 2011 Asian Cup, let's see what they do then. They also claimed that their women football is on the rise in Qatar.
Legacy
Legacy is one of the guidelines FIFA put out to the bidders. As I said before, this is the first World Cup in Qatar and the Middle East. All the benefits that come with that are great. But another thing to point out (which I haven't seen any other bidder do) is care about the environment and developing nations. As many of you know, Qatar plans on removing most tiers of their stadiums and donating them to developing nations in warm weather areas with their air-conditioning technology. Speaking about the air-conditioning, the technology will be solar powered. Also, zero carbon cooling technology = good for the environment.
Presentation
Besides all the facts that are in a bid to host a World Cup, one of the most important factors in deciding the hosts depends on how those facts are presented. You might be a perfect candidate for hosting the World Cup, but if you can't prove it, it's pointless. If you watched the presentations, Qatar had arguably the best presentation out of the 2022 bidders. Their presentation was professional, spoken in 3 different languages, and attention grabbing. It's OK if you have to suck up to the voters by speaking in their language, it's part of selling yourself.
Now, compare that to USA's presentation. Although they had high profile people, like Bill Clinton and Morgan Freeman, I have to say their presentation was boring. They seemed to spend more than half of the presentation convincing the voters that America is a highly diverse nation. No shit, we already know that. I didn't hear much about what they actually plan on doing. Not to mention the small things like Morgan Freeman skipping a page in his speech and Bill Clinton calling the sport soccer after everyone before him was calling it football.
Qatar put a lot of effort in this bid and I have to admit they deserve it. If you really want something, you will do all you can to achieve it. It also helps to have people like Pep Guardiola and Zidane supporting your bid (even if they had to pay them to sponsor their bid).
------------
I believe I have covered everything here, but if there are still some concerns, I will try to research it. I would like to lastly say, have faith in Qatar. People doubted USA in 1994 and look what happened. People doubted South Africa and look what happened. I think Qatar has the best qualities of both the USA and South Africa to make this a World Cup to remember for good reasons.
Last edited by ahlycotc on Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:43 am; edited 1 time in total
