FIFA World Cup 2022 : Question Of Whether It Will Be Held, Or Not, In Qatar Still Being Debated

By Kara Michelle Sep 24, 2014 07:28 AM EDT

FIFA World Cup 2022 : Question Of Whether It Will Be Held, Or Not, In Qatar Still Being Debated

On December 2, 2010, Qatar was selected as the location of the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament by the Federation Internationale de Football Association following an established bidding process. Qatar planned to use the event to promote Arab unity as well as to bridge the gap between the Arab and Western worlds. However, almost as soon as the announcement of the selection was made, calls for having that decision overturned were launched on grounds which stemmed from Qatar's limited football experience, Qatar's climate, and Qatar's human rights record. There have also been numerous allegations of bribery between the Qatar bid committee, which was headed by the Emir's son Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and FIFA members and executives.

In fact, several FIFA members, who were party to the selection process, have since gone on record saying that the decision to award the tournament to Qatar was a "mistake." On May 16, according to The Guardian, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said, "Of course it was a mistake. You know, one makes a lot of mistakes in life. The technical report indicated clearly that it was too hot in summer, but despite that the executive committee decided, with quite a big majority, that the tournament would be in Qatar."

More recently, according to CBC Sports, FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger on Monday said, "I personally think that, in the end, the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar. Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions. They may be able to cool the stadiums,but a World Cup does not take place only there. Fans from around the world will be coming and traveling in this heat and the first life-threatening case will trigger an investigation by a state prosecutor.That is not something that FIFA ex-co members want to answer for."

Later that Monday, the Qatar 2022 World Cup committee released a statement which in part reads: "Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022, despite comments of FIFA executive committee member Dr Zwanziger, which reflect his personal opinion and not that of FIFA. The only question now is when, not if. Summer or winter, we will be ready. We have proven that a FIFA World Cup in Qatar in the summer is possible with state-of-the-art cooling technology...." Also, Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Qatar 2022 organising committee, told reporters, "there's no basis to lose the World Cup...it's the first World Cup in the Middle East. When people think of this region, it's rather in terms of conflict. The World Cup will be an occasion to unite peoples. It will leave a positive heritage."