This morning like many soccer fans around the world, (yes I am an American don’t look at me like I have two heads.) and I was waiting in anticipation for the announcement regarding the hosting of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. All in all, I was hoping that we would get 2022, and from what I had heard, we actually had some pretty good odds of doing so. Yet oddly enough, when it was announced that it was going to Qatar, I could not say that was surprised.
Qatar is on of the little sheikdoms that dot the periphery of the Arabian Peninsula. It is smaller than New Jersey, making it the smallest nation to ever host it. It has never even qualified for the World Cup before. It gets unbearably hot in the summer (over 100 degrees on most days) and it would not have even been in the running of not for one simple thing. It is sitting on a ton of Oil money.
On a completely utterly and absolutely unrelated note, England was originally one of the top front runners for the 2018 World Cup until the English newspapers broke a story about FIFA officials taking bribes in exchange of their votes. Now all of a sudden they are out of the running and it goes to Russia instead. Like I said this is totally unrelated to the above.
If you believe that last sentence I have a bridge to sell you.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he did not want to involve himself in the World Cup bidding process because he thought it was corrupt. That something is too corrupt for the Russians should say something.
Well, I cannot say for certain that Qatar bought the votes to get the Cup. However it is rather suspicious that England would fall so far out of the running after a situation arose that portrayed FIFA in a negative light, or that a country as small and seemingly unfit to host such an important even as Qatar would come from nowhere and claim such a prize.
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