The hosts for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups have been announced. Russia has been chosen to host the most widely viewed sporting event in the world in 2018 and the tiny Arab nation of Qatar will do the honors in 2022. And while the selection of Russia as hosts has attracted a fair share of controversy with the English Football Association (FA), shocked at having lost out in the race to host, launching a tirade against FIFA and the selection policy, it is the appointment of Qatar that took me by surprise. And I must say, I am quite disappointed with the selection.

Ever since the first World Cup was held in 1930, the tournament has been one of the most keenly contested events in the world, and hugely popular as well. In fact, the World Cup is almost as keenly followed in countries like India, Malaysia and Singapore (teams that have never come close to even qualifying for the Cup), as it is in the participating nations. And the host countries, besides staging successful events, have often played stellar roles in making the competition stiff. Uruguay, Italy, England, West Germany and France have all been crowned World Champions in their own countries. Even the otherwise moderately successful teams like Chile (Semifinals in 1962) and Mexico (Quarterfinals in 1970 and 1986) managed to perform above expectations when they hosted the event. And that, precisely, is the issue I am trying to raise here.

Since the last few decades, the selection of World Cup hosts by FIFA has been heavily influenced by an attempt to spread the game (USA in 1994, Japan and Korea in 2002) and a little bit of romanticism (first time in reunited Germany in 2006, first time in Africa in 2010). The selection of Qatar sure follows the trend, as it will be a first for an Arab nation. And while I have no qualms about spreading the beautiful game or about being romantic, I definitely have my reservations about how deserving a candidate Qatar was!

A FIFA ranking of 113 and having a zero participation record in earlier World Cups are reasons enough to deem a country ineligible. Even at the continental level, Qatar’s best performance has been only a quarter final showing at the Asian Cup. The only tournament where they have had some success has been the not-so-competitive Gulf Cup of Nations which they have won twice. And a look at the four other bidders for the 2022 Cup further weakens any argument in favor of Qatar, as it clearly appears to be the weakest of the lot. Japan and the Korea Republic had jointly hosted a very successful tournament in 2002, and this time they bid individually. With both nations being continental powerhouses and having performed admirably in the last few editions (Korea reached the Semis in 2002, Japan made the round of 32 in both 2002 and 2010 ), both the bids appear stronger than that of Qatar.

The other Asian country in the race was Australia. And awarding them the Cup would have been a first as well, first World Cup down under! For a country that used to be the only dominant force in the largely amateurish Oceania region till a few years back, and often had to face the much stronger South American teams for a place in the final 32, they have done remarkably well since they joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2005. They qualified for the round of 32 in Germany 2006 only to lose out to eventual champions Italy, courtesy of a controversial extra-time penalty! They are ranked as high as 14th in the world, and have been a constant source of players for a lot of the world’s most competitive leagues for the last decade. Selecting them as hosts would also have helped the development of the game in the region.

The most deserving bid, in my opinion, however came from Uncle Sam! Football (or soccer as the Americans call it) in the US has come a long way since they first hosted the tournament in 1994. Unlike then, the game now has a decent following in the country. And the national team has been doing quite well, stringing together impressive performances in the Copa America, the World Cup and the Confederations Cup. They are now the top ranked team in their region, and with the kind of infrastructure they possess, I strongly felt they deserved another opportunity to host the event and let the world know about their progress.

FIFA however, thought otherwise and so, the World Cup will come to Asia a second time in 2022. There should be no questions about infrastructure though. Qatar definitely has the financial clout to pull off a spectacular event, and they have already started talking about futuristic ideas as climate controlled stadia to combat the heat players and spectators are expected to face at the time of the tournament. However, the FIFA rule that provides for automatic qualification of the host nation means that Qatar, only a moderate continental force, will be one of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup of 2022. And that in turn implies, the highly competitve Asian confederation will have one less deserving candidate representing them at the event. Unless of course FIFA foresees exponential growth in the standard of football in Qatar, and the country establishes itself as an Asian powerhouse by the third decade of this millennium. And if they can actually do that, I will be only too happy to eat my words and salute the tiny emirate and its people!

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